Cobra
by Skarsgaard
Summary: When David and Specs get chased into Cobra's territory, Sugar Hill, Harlem, they cause a all out borough war. R&R. Dumb summary I know. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

David looked up from the paper that he was attempting to scan while watching Les at the same time, when Jack walked up to him with a apologetic grin on his face. David had to wonder about Jack sometimes. He put his paper down and smiled as his friend came closer.

"Hey Davey." Jack ran his hand through his shaggy hair and sat down on the crate next to David.

"Hey Jack, ready to go sell? The headline is pretty good today."

Jack obviously wasn't ready to sell as he sighed and looked down at his boots.

"Well Davey, actually, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

David glanced at Jack worriedly,

"Sure Jack, what do you need?"

"Well, Skitts is sick and so Specs don't have a selling partner, I was just wondering if you could sell with him today."

Jack looked at David hopefully, but with a bit pleading mixed in his brown eyes.

David couldn't say no to those eyes,

"Sure, if you don't mind have Les with you all day." Jack laughed and the worried look left his eyes.

"Nah, I don't mind, and I'm sure he won't mind either, we always have fun together."

"Ok, then I'll see you later." David got up, shouldered his papes and Jack stood up after a second and beat the dust off his pants

"Awright Davey, thanks for doing this for me, if Specs sold anywhere else I wouldn't ask ya, but he insists on sell'n up toward Harlem." Jack shook his head and sighed.

"_Why would Jack be worried about it, it's not that bad up there, is it?"_

"Well, I'm sure we'll be fine Jack."

"Ok, see ya later Davey."

They spit shook and went their separate ways, Jack heading for the boxing rings with Les, who was on cloud nine and jumping around like a rabbit, and Davey heading toward north Manhattan with Specs.

Little did Jack and David know that that was the last time they'd see each other for awhile……………..


	2. Chapter 2

**I want to thank the wonderful reviewers that reviewed. Your reviews are appreciated and adored. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer : I do not own Newsies, Spot Conlon, Advantage, or Puck. Cobra, Bouncer and Tic, are mine and mine alone.**

Chapter 1

_A few hours later at the Brooklyn Docks _.

Spot Conlon sat on his 'throne' of crates and half-heartedly watched his boys swimming in the river.

His right hand man, Advantage, sat below him watching everything with his cool gray eyes and a slight smile playing on his lips.

Spot wondered what he was thinking about. He was about to ask him but Ad alerted him to three strangers walking their way.

He smirked, it was his favorite enemy, coming to visit. Ad hadn't been around the last time Spot's good friend had come to visit, so this would be a good test of Advantage's fighting skills.

He knew that Ad was a good fighter, lighting fast and powerful, otherwise he wouldn't be his second in command, but Cobra was more so.

Spot put on a slightly disgusted look on his face and glanced at Ad.

"Go take care of it, Ad."

Ad looked up at his leader, a bit confused. The only thing he saw was Spot leaning back on his crate with his eyes closed and a smirk plastered across his face.

Ad stood up, stretched, and walked toward the three strangers. Once he got closer, his eyes swept over them, taking them in.

What he presumed to be the leader, since he was in the front, was close to 6'4, and had golden-blonde hair. Ad absentmindedly noticed that all three had the same color of hair and similar facial features, he figured that they were brothers, or something, but the thing that stood out most, was the leaders eyes.

The one eye was a medium blue, the other one was unnaturally white. He shuddered slightly, as he neared, when he saw the reason for the white eye, a long scar that ran down and over the eye.

"_Probably blind"_ he thought.

He was suddenly distracted from the eye, to the intricately carved bone dagger handle peering out of the top of the leaders waistline. It was a horse, it's head flung proudly up, mane flying, with the arched neck going into the hilt. For some reason, it reminded him of his girl, Spunk. Feisty and beautiful, in a wild, untamed sort of way.

He was quickly jerked out of his revere by a low, somewhat educated voice.

"Are you going to stand there gawking at my dagger, or are you going to take us to Shorty, before you have a very personal encounter with my good friend here?"

His voice was like silk, but it was lined with thunder as the tall leader's hand drifted to the dagger.

Ad searched the others eyes, but saw nothing besides a slightly bemused look.

"_Who da heck is Shorty?"_ he wondered.

As if reading Ad's thoughts the leader clarified, who exactly Shorty was.

"I believe you know him as, Spot Conlon." The two boys in the back snickered. Ad was rather shocked.

"_If Spot had heard that, this guy would be toast."_

"Spot ain't seeing anyone today, whatever you got to tell 'im, you got to tell me first."

Ad crossed his arms and glared at the other boy, daring him to do something about it. By this time he was aware that most of the other Brooklynites were out of the water and watching intently. They all knew what was going to happen, it happened to all of Spot's second in command at sometime or another.

Ad smiled inwardly when the other boy seemingly backed down from the unspoken challenge. His smile broke into a grin when he saw that the others fingers were twitching madly, he was nervous, or so he thought.

Spot smirked when he saw the rapid twitching and the air grew tense.

"_Here it comes."_ he said to himself.

The tall boy turned as if to go, but suddenly came around with a roundhouse swing and made contact with Ad's shoulder with a sickening crunch.

Ad felt like a train had hit him. He threw a slug lighting fast at the other boys face but somehow, he punched the air.

It confused him and knocked him off balance, and in a instant he found himself on the ground, due to a smashing blow to the ribs, which temporarily knocked the wind out of him.

Advantage noticed when he was down, catching his breath, that, his opponent favored his right leg, it was barley touching the ground, as he stood there waiting for Ad to get up.

He struggled to his feet, and fiercely punched the other boy's jaw, causing his head to snap back and to stumble slightly.

While he was getting his bearings, Ad came in from his blind side and rammed his foot into the bad leg.

A general gasp ran through the crowd and Spot's mouth dropped.

"_Ad's a dead man, nobody kicks Cobra in da bum leg and lives."_ Spot thought.

Ad heard a violent hiss from his opponent and then he noticed briefly that the pant leg on his foe was now soaked in blood.

"_How can dat be? I only kicked hi.."_

He never got to finish his thought, because a fist slammed into his temple and dropped him like a brick.

Spot pushed through the crowd, sauntered over to his fallen second in command, bent down, and felt his pulse.

"He'll be fine, just knocked him out." Cobra said through clenched teeth as he rolled his pant leg up and looked at the freshly re-opened wound that was oozing blood.

Spot glanced briefly at the wound and leaned on his cane.

"_Wonder why Cobra let Ad off so easily? Or did knocking him out count as punishment for kicking him?"_

Cobra could be so confusing sometimes. Spot shook his head and focused on his friend.

"So how've you been, Cobra? Haven't seen ya 'round in a while."

Cobra looked up from tying the bit of rope that one of his boys had provided for a tourniquet and grinned wolfishly at Spot.

"Not much, Harlem is giving me trouble, again. The Bronx hasn't been bugging us too much. Queens is, well, Queens. How's Kelly? We don't get much news from 'Hatten, no thanks to Harlem."

Spot knew that Cobra was just itching to have a go at Jersey, the Harlem leader, (so named because he was from New Jersey) and possibly take over Harlem completely.

Spot slightly rolled his cyan eyes,

"Oh, Kelly's fine. What are you doing over here anyways, Cobra? You don't normally make calls without a reason."

Cobra glanced down at Advantage, who was slowly coming around, before looking back at Spot.

"Well, we were actually on our way to Sheepshead, but…." He suddenly glanced down the road in Queens direction, squinting before spying a small figure kicking up a cloud of dust heading their way, "…but from the looks of things, that won't be happening."

The figure, which turned out to be a girl, with long, curly, light brown hair flying every which way, sped up to Cobra's brother, Bouncer, and breathlessly, _demanded_, that she see Cobra.

He pointed to where he was, and she flew over, but tripped on her overly long brown pants and crashed into Ad, who was awake more or less, causing him to yelp in pain, for her elbow jabbed into his sore ribs. Cobra's eyebrows raised a bit, and he sighed in defeat.

"_What am I going to do with her?"_

By now she had got off of Ad and was standing in front of Cobra panting from her long run and jabbering so fast that he could not understand her.

"Puck! Slow down, I can't understand you under normal circumstances!" Cobra put his hands on her shoulders and bent his 6'4 frame down to be at her 5'4 level and so he could look her in the eyes.

She stopped jabbering and looked at the ground, Spot Conlon's eyes weren't the only

ones that couldn't be met. After she had calmed down, Cobra went to interrogating her.

Spot and now standing Advantage watched with interest, Spot had never seen Cobra interrogate anyone, although his 'little birdies' had given him vivid descriptions of it when they had been caught inside of Cobra's territory.

"Ok, Puck," He absentmindedly brushed her hair back, he liked his gang to be neat,

"Can you tell me in short, slow, clear sentences, what is so terribly wrong, that you ran all the way through Queens from Sugar Hill to tell me?"

Puck looked at him, and swallowed.

"Well, from what I heard, before they told me to come get you, is that two Mad Hatters (Cobra's term for newsies from Manhattan) were chased into Harlem by a guy who saw that they were selling fabricated headlines, well the Harlem boys chased them and beat them up, and some how they got chased up into the Labyrinth (Sugar Hill), and Willow has a group out looking for them, she's the one who sent me to get you. And then those stupid Queens boys chased me all the way to the Brooklyn border. Jerks."

Puck's usually cheerful face was creased into a upset frown.

By this time Cobra's temper was fully up and he wanted nothing more than to fight, but you couldn't tell by looking at him, he was calm and collected, he never let anger drive him. He stood up and Spot watched him, waiting to see what he would do.

"_Two of Kelly's boys, wonder which two. Up toward Harlem is usually Skittery's and Spec's area. I'd better tell Jack, he'll be worried if they aren't back by tonight."_

"Cobra? Do you want me to send a message to Jack?" Spot asked.

Cobra turned and stared at Spot coldly, but he was so flustered, he wasn't speaking English.

"Ja, det er god." (_yeah, that would be good_.)

Spot was confused, he didn't know that Cobra spoke a different language.

Before he could say anything, Cobra was rattling off in Norwegian, to his two right hand men, Bouncer and Tic (also his brothers, Ad's guess was correct).

Ad, who was a tad confused, quietly asked Spot to tell him what was going on, Spot said that he would tell him everything later, but right now, Harlem and North Harlem was looking like they were going to war. Ad seemed satisfied with his answer.

A few seconds later, Cobra had said goodbyes, apologized to Advantage for clobbering him, and him, Bouncer, Tic and Puck, were headed back to North Harlem……………


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to all of you wonderful reviewers, for your wonderful reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, Spot Conlon(thankfully), David or Specs. Puck, is owned by Puck Higgins, Kid Snitch is owned by Kid Snitch. The rest are mine.**

**And yes, this is a short chapter.**

Chapter 2

Cobra had never been power mad, he had slowly worked his way up to the position he had now, slowly fighting and manipulating, pulling all the right strings, using his few contacts, many wits and his dagger that never left his side, to win himself the Sugar Hill area in North Harlem.

Even though Jersey had practically slaughtered him over it, he had never let go of it, but had slowly started to take over small pieces of Harlem _and_ the Bronx, ever so slowly expanding his borders.

And though the Harlem river separated him from the Bronx, Cobra had managed to take over a three block area, without the Bronx's Irish leader, Dublin, knowing it.

He and Spot had first met at Sheepshead Racetracks, were Spot had attempted to steal his gold watch chain, Cobra (then Labyrinth) had only been twelve, Spot had been ten. After beating Spot within a inch of his life, they'd become best friends, up until Cobra and his brothers had disappeared.

No one was really sure where Cobra and his brothers had come from, they'd showed up at the racetracks looking for a job one day and ended up working there as stable boys. Some how Cobra ended up filling in for a sick jockey, and rode his horse to victory, (ironically that horse had never won a race in it's life, but went on to win many times more so long as Cobra was riding him.) Cobra was given that horse's name, in honor of their victory, Labyrinth.

He and his brothers stayed there for a year or so, until, someone poisoned the horse that Cobra was riding, a beautiful dapple gray, named Senorita Rosa, which dropped dead in the middle of the race, with Cobra trapped underneath, unconscious. His leg was badly mangled and the stable people kicked Cobra out, because they didn't want a crippled stable boy.

Spot managed to convince them to come and be newsies, and with Cobra's mangled leg and little Olaf's cute face, the four brothers did pretty well.

But they never really stayed in Brooklyn, they just kinda wandered around New York, selling where ever and staying where they wanted. Most of the leaders found out that no one was Cobra's leader, he lead himself and went by nobody's rules. Of course traveling around New York the way they did, they quickly made allies and enemies. Bronx was pretty much neutral toward them, Brooklyn was an ally, as was Manhattan, even though they didn't really know the 'Hatten leader, Harlem was the biggest threat, and Queens it depended on what mood their leader was in.

Spot frequently wondered what had happened to his friend but after Harlem started having trouble, he had a good idea where he had gone. And the rest was history, Harlem hadn't been peaceful since, not that it ever had been. It had erupted into a full scale war, that divided Harlem and north Harlem.

There were casualties on both sides, and then there had been the fight between Jersey and Cobra, the deciding battle, in which Cobra had lost sight in his eye. All of New York had heard about that fight, for news traveled fast among the newsies. It had raged all the way from the border of Sugar Hill down to the border of Central Park. It had not been just a test of strength, but one of brains and cunning.

Of course Jersey had cheated when he had pulled that knife, they both had been exhausted, mentally and physically, and Jersey just wanted it to be over, so he had pulled the six inch blade and had aimed for Cobra's chest, but Cobra, though tired, was still fast and had dropped to the ground, causing the blade to slash his face instead of his chest.

But when Cobra kept _trying_ to fight, Jersey had to call it quits, anybody who would continue to fight at that point, would have to be mad. So they called a truce and Jersey handed over Sugar Hill to Cobra, which he had rightly won.

And so Cobra became a great threat to those who crossed him, and a loyal ally to those who befriended him. He stayed in his own territory and organized a spy system that rivaled Spot's any day. He had implants, boys and girls that blended in, kept him informed.

Spot knew that there were implants under his own nose, but he couldn't figure out who they were. He had to admit, Cobra was good. But so was Jersey, even if he did use underhanded methods of getting what he wanted.

Which was exactly what Cobra was thinking when, he and his boys, plus a very exhausted Puck, arrived at their 'home', a old brick two story building, in the heart of Sugar Hill, the only lodging house was in main Harlem, so Cobra and his boys made due with what they had, which they didn't mind. It worked to their advantage anyways.

Cobra burst into the building and hollered for Willow, his third in command, even though she was a girl. She hollered back from behind a wall of packing crates.

Cobra's little brother Olaf, flew around the corner, and tackled his brother, who lifted him up on his shoulders, and rounded the corner which led into the common area. Cobra was a bit shocked at what he saw. Two very beaten up Mad Hatters were stretched out on the floor, being cleaned up, and such. Cobra turned to Willow.

"Where did you find them?" he asked lowering Olaf to the ground.

Willow stood up and pushed her thick golden-brown hair back,

"Lisp and Cod found them under one of the docks on the Harlem River. They're pretty bad Cobra."

He nodded and as he bent down to one of them, his breath suddenly clicked, when he saw who it was.

"Willow, come here. This is that new kid of Kelly's, the one that helped with the strike."

Willow just nodded and wetted a rag down and began to wipe the blood off of his face.

Cobra stood up and called for one of his contacts, for the Manhattan area. A tiny brown headed boy came up and reported. Cobra looked at him, smiled, then bent down.

"Can you tell me who these two boys are?"

The little guy swallowed and pointed to the nearest one.

"That one is Davey, and the other one is Specs."

He looked up at Cobra for approval. Cobra nodded and the boy took off to play marbles with some of the other little boys.

"David and Specs, I thought that David sold with Kelly?" Cobra said to no one in particular.

David began to stir, and tried to move but groaned in pain. Cobra let out a small laugh and held him still, while Willow poured alcohol into his cuts.

That really woke David up, and he thrashed around a bit, but that was difficult since Cobra was holding him down.

Once Willow was done and had gone to do something else, and David got his senses back, Cobra started questioning him.

David was shocked at the educated tone of voice this street rat had, and the lack of New York accent.

"So David," Cobra began, but was stopped but Willow.

"Cobra, can you come here for a minute?" She called, from behind a stack of boards.

Cobra frowned at David, got up and went over to Willow.

"Yeah Will?" He asked, leaning up against a wall.

Willow glared at him, and peeked around the corner at confused David.

"Why don't you give the kid a break, Co? He's been chased through Harlem, beaten up, and now your interrogating him. Lay off of him, he's not going anywhere."

Cobra sighed and held his hands out in defeat.

"Fine, I'll leave him alone."

He knew he was a softy deep inside and couldn't resist Willow's hazel eyes. He turned and walked back into the common area and hollered for Cod.

Cod came up to him, and was going to say something, but Kid Snitch came barreling in, in a general uproar about something. She started past Cobra, but he caught her by her suspenders. He wheeled her around and looked into her flashing green eyes.

"Snitch? What's going on?" He asked, threatening to pick her up by her shoulders. The two of them never got along very well, she was too stubborn and rebellious. She glared back at him,

"Well, I was just down at the park selling and October told me that he just found out that Jersey is closing Harlem's borders, until we hand over those two."

Cobra dropped her and quickly ran out of the building, without saying a word………….


	4. Chapter 4

**YAY, four chapters! A Big THANK YOU to all of the reveiwers, and I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, or any of the charecters from Newsies. Puck belongs to Puck Higgins, and Kid Snitch, belongs to Kid Snitch. The rest are mine.**

Chapter 3

Cobra flew down the streets until he crossed the Harlem/Sugar Hill border, then he slowed his pace and got watchful, making sure he wasn't seen by any of Jersey's goons. Suddenly he ducked into a small, decrepit building.

He stopped once he was inside, so his eyes could adjust to the dim light, and his lungs to the heavy smoke, then he scanned the building till his eyes rested on one of Jersey's goons.

Cobra strode over to over to him and slammed his dagger into the wooden table top, making the goon choke on his drink.

He waited until he was done choking and then grabbed him by the front of the shirt and dragged him to a backroom that he knew about. The goon protested violently but couldn't do much about.

"Where's Jersey?" Cobra hissed, his voice cold as ice.

The goon trembled and shook his head, "I, I don't know."

Cobra narrowed his eyes and held his dagger up to the goon's throat,

"Well when you see him, tell him that he's not getting those two 'Hatten boys, I don't care if he closes the border and declares WAR, I'm not giving them up."

With that he let go of the goon, put his dagger back into it's sheath and stalked out, heading back into Sugar Hill.

Back at the lodging house, David and the now awake Specs, were being treated like kings, so to speak, Olaf had taken a personal liking to David and was trying to get him to understand Norwegian, since Olaf spoke very little English. Bouncer and Tic were showing their fantastic book collection to Specs and Willow watched over everything.

Kid Snitch had heard about a fight going on in Queens, and had snuck off to see if she could get involved in it. Cobra would have had a fit and she knew it. She enjoyed antagonizing him and he enjoyed fussing over her.

David looked down at Olaf in confusion and then glanced up at Willow,

"Can you tell me what he's saying?" He asked motioning to Olaf.

Willow laughed, "Bouncer, Tic and Cobra, are the only ones that that speak that language."

Davey's eyebrows arched, but flinched since it hurt to make many facial movements.

"And what language is that?"

One of Cobra's spies, Seal, laughed from the corner where he was sitting.

"Nobody really knows, Cobra and his brothers are kinda a walking secret. No one know where they come from, who they are, or anything."

Seal threw a small piece of sharpened metal across the room at a dart board. It hit the bull's-eye, causing Specs jump since he was standing right next to the board, and made Willow glare at Seal disapprovingly.

"How many times has Cobra told you to stop throwing sharp objects across peopled areas, Seal? And how many times have I told you to quit telling people that, 'mystery', line?" Willow snapped.

Seal grinned and pushed his sandy brown hair out of his light blue eyes,

"Well, I guess I haven't been told enough times, huh?"

Willow snorted and stalked up to him, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and propelled him to the door.

"Get a life, Seal!" She yelled at him has he took off down the street, due to Willow chucking rocks at him.

Willow turned back and walked over to David.

"Has your arm stopped bleeding yet?" She asked, while examining a massive bruise on his cheek. David flinched and looked under the piece of cloth covering a long, deep, cut on his forearm.

"Yeah, it's stopped a little. Ow. My mom's going to have a fit when she sees me." He muttered.

Willow looked at him curiously,

"You have a mom? Well there's a good chance she won't be seeing you for a long time."

David paled. "What do you mean by that, OW!" Willow had put some ice on David's face, and had pressed to hard.

"Sorry." She laughed a bit. "Well, Jersey closed Harlem's border's until Cobra hands you two over to him. But don't worry, he won't."

Specs, who wasn't has hurt as David, glanced up from a book he was looking through, compliments of Tic.

"But why won't he? He has no reason to keep us, does he?"

A black haired, black eyed slender boy dropped from the beam above them, where he had been sitting. He gave a slight smile.

"You don't know Cobra, he'll keep you, just to make Jersey mad, that's what he wants, to make him mad."

Little Olaf walked up to Fiend and shoved him in the chest,

"Hvordan mange ganger gjør Cobra forteller De, slutte falle fra taket ??!!" (_How many times does Cobra have to tell you, to stop dropping from the ceiling_) he shouted.

Cobra walked in at that moment, picked Olaf up by the suspenders and hauled him outside. Suddenly Cobra bellowed from outside.

"Fiend! Get out here, NOW!!"

Willow snickered and Fiend paled, then he went outside slowly. A few minutes later the three of them came back in, Olaf beaming, Fiend looking depressed, and Cobra's face was expressionless, his gaze sweeping the room.

"_Where is she? If I find out that she left, I'll kill her." _He thought.

Cobra turned to Puck, who had come out of the girls area, looking much more refreshed, and had her usual smile on her face, which brightened the room when she came in.

"Puck. Come here." Cobra said sitting down in a chair. Puck came over, nodding at Dave and Specs as she passed them.

"Yeah, Cobra?" She asked, taking the chair that he offered.

Cobra began casually setting up a checker board, Willow frowned and went over, drawing up a chair too. Pretty soon most of the boarding house was at the table, watching. Cobra started the conversation, with an opening move.

"So, Puck, do you know where Snitch is?" He moved his man on square 24, to square 19.

Puck chewed her lip.

"I didn't know that she had come back yet." She replied, moving her man on 10, to 14.

The air grew tense, Dave could feel it, but he wasn't sure what was going on. However he found a checkers game refreshing, he had tried once to get Jack to play, but Jack never had understood it.

Cobra contemplated a move,

"You didn't?"

He moved from 22 to 18, and sat back, thinking out the game. Puck studied the board, as if it was going to give her the answer's she needed.

She was getting flustered and she moved from 12 to 16, giving Cobra a jump, which he took, placing his man from 19, on 12.

"No Cobra, I, I was asleep." she said, her eyes darting over the board, looking for a weakness in his game, but knowing she would find none. The air grew even heavier, no one was breathing, it seemed.

"Hmmm, your move Puck." Was all Cobra said, he didn't need to say much, he could see her sweating already.

Puck quivered and moved from 11 to 16.

Cobra half smiled, the game went on in silence for a while, before Puck finally broke.

She was losing badly, Cobra had seven men to her two, well, now one, for he had just jumped her.

"OK, I know where she went!" Puck said. Cobra paused in the middle of a move and nodded.

"Yes, I'm listening." He replied quietly, setting his king down with a click.

Puck sighed and moved her man into a corner,

"She heard about a fight over in Queens, and went to see if she could get involved."

Cobra nodded again, and moved his king in, trapping her man. The game was over and Cobra had gotten what he wanted. Puck and Willow stepped outside to get some air, and everyone else went back to what they were doing before, no one seemed bothered, except David and Specs. David needed answers, so he grabbed the first person to walk by him, which happened to be October, Cobra's top spy.

"What was that all about?" David asked, looking at October's gentle face. October smiled softly and lead David back to the boy's sleeping area. He motioned to a bunk, and sat down on the one across from it.

"Ok, David, your going to be here for a while, I think, so you should know about Cobra. Well, at least what I know about him. Cobra doesn't use force or pain, or anything like that to get what he wants from us, he uses his mind. Now other people, like his enemies, he'll use force, but not with us. He's funny that way."

October got up and rounded up some blankets for Davy's bunk. He came back to the bunks and handed the blankets to David, before sitting back down.

"Cobra's smart, all the brothers are, educated smart. They came from a good family, or so I've heard." David looked confused.

"Well, then how'd they get to be here?" Davey asked, looking October in the eyes.

He shrugged.

"Nobody knows the answer to that question, David." October stood up, "Come on, my nose tells me that Willow has cooked up a culinary miracle."


	5. Chapter 5

**Yes, another chatper, the same day. That means, gasp I posted twice in a day! Anyways, Thank you to the reviwers, who have reviewed so far...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, or the charecters thereof. Kid Snitch, belongs to Kid Snitch. The rest are mine, or Disney's.**

Chapter 4

_Queens_

Cobra slunk down a alleyway in the heart of Queens, listening to the fight grow louder as he drew closer. He reached the ally and watched for a bit, and was about to drag Kid Snitch out of the fight, but changed his mind.

"_If I go in there and get her, she'll have won. She's expecting me to come get her." _He shook his head, and turned back to Harlem.

"_No, that won't work, the more I punish her the more she likes it. Argh. What's the worst thing I could do? She never listens anyways."_

Half hour later he crossed the Queens Bridge into the Bronx. Once he reached the other side, he went down to the water. The night was cool, and he knew the water would be cold. Eastchester Bay certainly wasn't the Norwegian Sea, but this is what he had.

Cobra stripped down and plunged into the water, enjoying the coldness. He dove down, then surfaced, treading water.

He looked up at the bridge when he heard a whistle. Tic stood there, leaning over the edge, grinning, his head jerking to one side slightly.

"Having fun?" He called.

Cobra grinned up at his brother.

"You should come join me, Lars. The water is perfect." Tic shook his head and strolled to the end of the bridge.

"Nah, I never liked swimming, especially in cold water, you know that Sven."

Cobra chuckled and swam to the bank. Tic walked down the embankment and met Cobra on the shore.

"Where's Snitch? I thought you went out to get her?" Tic asked, as he glanced around him, as if suspecting Snitch to jump out at him. Of course he doubted that she would be there, since Cobra was swimming shirtless. Cobra would never be swimming shirtless if there was a girl within a five block radius of him. He had a twisted sense of decency.

Tic glanced back at his brother, who was now buttoning up his shirt and waiting for Tic to stop looking like he was being stalked.

"I gave up on her, Lars. The one thing that Snitch hates for me to do, worse than anything else, is for me to ignore her. So that's what I'm going to do."

Tic laughed, he couldn't help himself. Snitch was going to be absolutely furious, he could see her storming into the building, and being mad at Cobra for not coming after her. Tic snickered, and Cobra looked at him,

"What do you find so amusing?" He asked, tucking his shirt into his wet pants and picking up his dagger.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how mad Snitch is going to be." Tic chuckled again. Cobra had to laugh along.

"Yeah, she's going to be mad. Come on, lets go home." He glanced up at the sky. "It's close to midnight now."

Tic flung his arm over his brother's shoulder, and they walked back to Sugar Hill like that.

_Harlem Lodging House_

Jersey, glared at his goon that had been threatened by Cobra, digesting the news that he had been told.

"_So, Cobra's not going to give them to me, huh? Well, they were in MY territory, and they hurt one of MY boys, so THEY are going to have to pay. I'll get them, one way, or another."_

He let go of the goon, and sent him on his way. Then he slammed his head into the wall, and silently cursed Cobra. He knew that this was the opportunity that Cobra wanted, the opportunity to take over Harlem, and to tell the truth, Jersey didn't want to fight Cobra again. Especially now that Cobra was older.

Jersey walked out of the bathroom and into the bunkroom and glanced around. He needed to get spies into The Labyrinth, but most of his boys were too, well, dumb, good fighters, but not to good at creeping and that sort of thing. All of his good spies had deserted to Cobra. He gave a frustrated sigh, and flopped down on his bunk, closing his eyes.

Mentally he went through his boys and few girls. Trying to figure out who was best for the job. Finally he fell asleep…….

_Sugar Hill_

Cobra and Tic approached the border of The Labyrinth, the heart of their territory. They were stopped by a guard, Cobra gave the password, quickly, and in Norwegian. That was one of the reasons that no spies had ever got in to the Labyrinth, because no one could say the password right. The other reason was because Cobra had so many guards around his territory.

The two of them walked into the building they called home and quietly made their way to the boys area.

Willow was up. She was always up, she stayed up until all the Newsies came back.

"Cobra?" She asked, when she heard the door open.

Cobra waved to Tic, telling him to go on to bed. Then he walked over to Willow.

"Yeah, Will?" He asked, as he sat down in his chair, it was his, because his name was carved in it.

"Where's Snitch?" Willow was clearly concerned. As usual.

Cobra put his feet on the table and sat back in the chair. Willow pushed his feet off the table and made his chair to snap back on the floor. Cobra glared and Willow smirked.

"She's in Queens. I left her there." Willow stood up and smacked Cobra. She didn't need to say anything. He knew what she had meant by it. He watched her as she stalked off to the girls area, and listened for a minute, before going to his own bunk and laying down.

A few hours later Cobra was jerked from sub-conscious sleep, when he heard the door slam and angry footsteps make their way to the girl's area. Cobra grinned. It was Snitch.

Cobra stood up on his bed, grabbed one of the rafters, and pulled himself up on it. He didn't want to underestimate Snitch. She was bad about revenge.

He watched from his perch as Snitch stormed up to his bunk and dumped a bucket of water on where she thought his head was. Cobra had a hard time not laughing at her expression when he did not fly out of bed, like she was expecting.

She looked positively furious, as she stormed out of the bunkroom and into her own bunkroom, being pelted with pillows, from sleepy boys.

Cobra chuckled and walked down the beam to the loft, he could have used the stairs, but he didn't. Once inside he flopped down on the bed that was there, and fell asleep…….

Manhattan Lodging House

A few hours earlier.

Jack, who had been up pacing the floor, stopped for a minute and listened to the different idea's of what had happened to Specs and David. Skittery was still bed-ridden, and cursing his illness. Les had been taken home, after selling was over, and Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs had been reassured by Jack.

They had noticed something was up, when Specs and David hadn't shown up at Tibby's for lunch. This wasn't terribly unusual, since where Specs sold was a long way's off, and sometimes he couldn't make it back. But when they hadn't come back that night, Jack knew something was up.

Jack was mad at himself, as he began pacing the floor, and running his hand through his greasy hair.

"_I shouldn't have let Spec's sell up there, I should have made him sell down here. Then Davey wouldn't be in trouble. I hope their not hurt. ARGH!"_

At that moment Spot Conlon, himself walked through the door. The room grew silent as he looked over everyone. He noticed that Skittery was there, but not Specs.

Jack stopped his pacing and turned to Spot.

"What are you doing here, Spot?" Visits from Brooklyn were rare.

Spot leaned on his cane and watched Jack's face. "I was wondering if any of your newsies were missing."

Jack paled and the room grew quieter, if that was possible. "Yeah, we are, what do you know about it?"

Spot fiddled with the cane head, "I know that there're in Harlem, and I know that they got beat up, and I know that Cobra's on the war path because of it." he smirked.

Race's cigar dropped from his mouth, and Jack sat down on his bed.

"HOW do you know all that, Spot, and don't say 'My little birdies told me' either." Jack said glaring at Spot, but with a lot of worry in his brown eyes.

"Nah, I heard it from Cobra's birdie. He was at the dock's when his runner brought him the news." Spot looked at Skittery, who had turned even paler. "What wrong with him? I thought he and Spec's sold together?"

Jack looked at Skittery also, before turning back to Spot.

"He's sick, that why I had DAVID, sell with Specs. I should have made them stay down here." Jack cradled his head in his hands.

Spot, upon hearing the word 'sick' backed away from Skitts' bunk. He may have been the King of Brooklyn, but even _he_ could get sick, as much as he hated to admit it.

"Well" Spot said backing towards the door, and glaring at Race who was trying not to laugh. "I'll see ya around Jack, just wanted to tell ya about your boys." and with that he bolted out the door.

Jack couldn't help but laugh, especially since Racetrack was dying of laughter. It wasn't very often that you got to see Spot Conlon, King of Brooklyn, bolt from anything.

But pretty soon the laughter had died down, and Jack went back to thinking and pacing, even more worried, now that he knew what was going on, to a point of course.

Racetrack got up off his bunk and walked over to Jack.

"Hey, Jack? What are we going to do? We can't go to war with Harlem, there're to strong." Race was very worried. It showed in his voice and face.

Jack shrugged, "I don't know, but we'll think of something."

A few minutes later Kloppman came up and sent the boys into bed, and letting Jack alone with his thoughts…….


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, well, long time, no post, I know. BUT, I am now. Short chapter, but, oh well.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, or any one in Newsies, yadda yadda yadda. The rest are mine, unless their yours.**

Chapter 5

Early Morning

Sugar Hill

The Sugar Hill Newsies had no Kloppman to wake them up every morning, unlike some places, so when Specs didn't hear Kloppman yelling at them to get up and out of bed, he began to get worried.

"_Is Kloppy sick? Why isn't anyone up yet?"_ he wondered quietly to himself.

He felt around for his glasses, and put them on, then he remembered why there was no Kloppy, because he wasn't in Manhattan anymore. He glanced down at David, on the bunk below, at least there was a familiar face here. David's bruise didn't look so good, but then again, bruises never look good. Specs carefully touched his own face and winced as his fingers probed a cut and several bruises.

He jumped when he heard a loud strange noise above them, then he heard David thrash around and fly out of bed, half awake.

"What's that?" David asked, confusedly, then he realized that he had got up to fast and fell back into bed. Tic, who was awake laughed,

"That's just Cobra, checking in with his contacts, he does that every morning. The noise is a ram's horn. It's also kinda our wake up call."

Specs listened to the loud cursing of the girls, in the next room. Most were aimed at Cobra, but some were aimed at the horn.

A few minutes later, one could hear faint answering calls from the other boroughs. The last report, from Queens, got Cobra on the war path.

"October!" He bellowed as he crashed down the stairs.

October looked up from buttoning his shirt,

"Yeah, Cobra, what's going on?"

Cobra picked up a shirt and helped Olaf button it up,

"City's decided to join Jersey, that what!" He spat.

City, the Queens leader, had never got along with Cobra, or with anyone else, for that matter. He had always gave Spot trouble, and Cobra and him had had it out more than once. So this was a perfect opportunity for him to get back at Cobra.

October ran a comb through his reddish-brown hair and pulled up his gray suspenders.

"Well, I don't see why that would bother you to much." He replied quietly.

Cobra finished with his brother's shirt and then helped some of the other little ones with theirs.

"It doesn't." Cobra said with a grin. "I just hope that the Bronx stays neutral through all this, I don't need to be surrounded. Brooklyn doesn't do me much good, since they're on the other side of the enemies."

Tic snorted, "Brooklyn wouldn't do much good anywhere. Arrogant airheads "

Cobra and the others laughed. They knew that it wasn't true, that's what made it so funny to them. That and Tic's passionate hating of Spot for unknown reasons. He took every opportunity to bash Spot and Brooklyn that he could.

David and Specs listened to the strange conversation, not fully comprehending the meaning behind it. October felt it was his responsibility to take the newcomers under his wing and explain what was going on. He and Willow were brother and sister, not that either of them would admit it. Hence the maternal attitude.

October pulled David and Specs aside and inside a back room. He motioned for them to sit down in some chairs that were in there.

"You two are confused, I can tell. So I'll explain what's going on." October said, sitting down in another chair.

David nodded, "Yes, please do."

October laughed, and began his explanation……………

One and a half hours later, Specs and David came back out of the room, looking slightly relived and much more understanding of the events that had passed and the ones that were more than likely going to come.

Cobra looked up from where he was sitting, reading a paper, when they came out. He never took long to sell, because he had a route of rich houses that he sold to regularly.

"Did you guys have fun?" He asked sourly.

October smiled, "Well, would you rather have confused Mad Hatters, or understanding ones?"

"Understanding ones." Cobra replied, smiling fiercely.

Specs shuddered at the wolfish expression on Cobra's face, and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Cobra arched a eyebrow at Specs gesture, then looked back to October,

"Are you going to show them how we sell in Harlem?"

It wasn't a question, October knew that. It was a command, in the form of a question. It was one of those things that Cobra made you keep on your feet for. Subtle things, that you wouldn't notice if you weren't paying attention, but that could get you into trouble if you didn't catch it.

What Cobra had really meant was: "You are going to show them how we sell in Harlem."

October nodded his head, and ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, Cobra, I was. Is there anything else you want me to show them, while I'm at it?"

Cobra smiled. Of course there was. And October knew that there was.

"Yes, there is, when you're done, I want you to teach them how to fight. If they are going to be in Harlem for this war, they need to fight like Harlem. But you knew that." Cobra said,

"Oh, and get Seal and Fiend to help." He added, standing up, and enjoying the panicked look on David's face.

"_I've never fought a day in my life."_ David thought. _"And now these guys are going to TEACH me? Can I learn to fight?"_

Specs was thinking along the same lines, as October took them to their distribution center.

"_I've fought a little, but not much. Can I handle being taught to fight? What would Jack do?"_ Specs wondered.

October stopped in front of a small building and brought his papers and then motioned for Specs and David to buy theirs. When they were done October lead them out to a street corner.

"Ok, show me how you sell in 'Hatten." He said waving for them to start.

David nodded and glanced over the headline, when he found one interesting enough to twist, he shouted it out.

"FACTORY CATCHES ON FIRE!!!!! HUNDREDS DIE!!!!!"

October frowned and looked at the actual headline, 'Factory Chimney catches on fire, pigeons die.'

A few people walked by David, and some actually went around him, looking at him like he was a new species of some sort. But no one stopped to buy a paper.

October laughed at Specs and David's confused expressions.

"Nobody buys twisted headlines like that up here, and nobody will buy from you if you yell. Here, like this."

October walked up to a rich looking lady and tipped his hat and smiled.

"Would you like to buy a paper, Ma'am?" He asked, politely.

The lady looked at him for a moment then smiled, and handed him a penny, he took the offered coin and gave her the paper, thanked her, tipped his hat, and walked away. Grinning.

"THAT'S how you do it in Sugar Hill." he said as he walked back up to David and Specs. "Bellowing out fabricated headlines like a bull, won't make you a living here. Now you try." he said gleefully, having fun with his new students.

Specs pushed his glasses up his nose again, and walked over to a business man.

"Want a pape, Mister?" he asked, trying to be polite.

The man looked up at him and wrinkled his nose.

"NO." He said coldly, then looked Specs over. "You aren't from here, are you?"

Specs shook his head, "No, sir."

The man handed him a nickel and took a paper, "Keep the change. If your not from here,

I'll buy a paper from you, cause you obviously haven't learned your trade yet."

Specs looked slightly confused, but took the money and handed the man a paper, then walked back over to October and David. October was laughing.

"I should have warned you about him, he's one of Seal's regular customers." October said with a snort. "Well, you guys have fun selling, none of us have selling spots, just stay around here, and meet me back at the Distribution Center, in two hours. Got it?"

David and Specs nodded, wondering why October was leaving them to sell on their own in this strange place.

David watched October leave, and sighed.

"What do you think of all this Specs?" he asked, handing a paper to a passing man, and pocketing the money.

Specs shrugged, "I don't know. I hope that we don't have to stay here long though, Cobra gives me the creeps. I'm going over there." He said, pointing to a place under a tree, across the road.

David nodded, but didn't say anything. He felt like he was being watched.

He sold a half of his papers, until the hair on the back of his neck begin to slowly rise. He wheeled around, and found himself staring into a pair of the blackest eyes he had ever seen………..


	7. Chapter 7

**Yep, another update. Yippe.**

**Disclaimer:Don't own Newsies. You know the drill.**

Chapter 6

Fiend grinned from the rooftop were he was watching the new kid, David or something, sell. He stared at the back of the kid's head for a bit, enjoying watching him freak out a little. When the kid was half way through his papers, Fiend came down from the rooftop and stalked David for a minute, creeping up on him, till he was inches away. He wasn't named Fiend for nothing………….

David peered into the black eyes for a moment, entranced and startled at the same time. He backed slowly away, and then looked at the boy. Black, wavy hair, black eyes, olive complexion and smooth skin. The boy was what David imagined a Greek to look like. Like one of those statues, he had seen a drawing of in his history book…….

Fiend looked back at David, only he was smiling widely, showing off his white, straight teeth.

"What? Never been stalked before?" Fiend asked, staring intensely at a spot somewhere behind David.

"No. I've not. We don't stalk fellow newsies in Manhattan." He said, almost uppity like.

Fiend wrinkled his nose, "Oh. Well, your to come with me, and we are going to give you your first lesson in fighting. Bring Glasses or whatever his name too."

David looked confused, "But, October said that we would meet him at the distubution center in two hours. And his name is Specs, not Glasses."

"Well, he changed his mind." Fiend snapped, "Now come on, we don't have all day."

David nodded and went to get Specs, then followed Fiend into the heart of the Labyrinth, to a warehouse, which was obviously used by the Sugar Hill Newsies, but for what, David didn't know.

Fiend took a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door, waited for David and Specs to go in, then locked it behind him.

Specs looked around him, pushing his glasses up his nose. He suddenly jumped, when a piece of glass thudded into the wall next to him.

Fiend glared into the darkness in the direction that the glass had come from,

"SEAL, STOP DOING THAT!" He bellowed.

Out of the darkness emerged October and Seal, both wielding weapons of some sort. Seal carried a leather pouch, that was filled with glass, metal, sharpened pieces of wood, anything that could be thrown and inflict serious damage.

October carried his usual dagger and an assortment of switchblades. He was also carrying a couple pair of leather gloves.

He smiled softly at David and Specs, and threw two pairs of the gloves to them.

"Sorry about the change of plans, Cobra has work for us later, so we'll have to do this now." He said, pulling on the gloves. "Ok, show me what you can do."

David looked down at the gloves, then back up at October.

"What?" David asked, a bit confused.

Seal grinned, "You really don't know much, do you?"

Fiend walked over to David, and took the gloves out of his hands, "Put your hand out."

David put his hand out, and Fiend put the glove on it, rolling his eyes.

"Do you think you can manage the other one on your own, you do I have to do it for you?" He asked sarcastically, handing the other glove to David. David jerked it out of his hand, and pulled it on.

"Better." Fiend said, "Now, what you have to do, is attack October. Think you can do that?"

David looked at him, "But why?"

Seal let out a sigh of frustration, and attacked David, punching him lightly in the side, and knocking David down. That made David a little mad, and he got to his feet, glaring at Seal.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" He yelled.

Fiend groaned and October massaged his temples, shaking his head.

Seal jumped at David again, hitting him full on the chest with his shoulder and knocking him down again.

David got to his feet again, and rubbed his chest. He was beginning to get the idea, so he launched a fist in Seals direction. Seal easily ducked it and motioned for October to take his place. He wasn't a fist fighter, that was October's style. HE was more of a, long range fighter, so to speak.

Fiend and Seal watched as October gently pummeled David. It was like watching a bear cub wrestle with a sibling. David would be black and blue by tonight. October didn't know his own strength sometimes………

Specs, on the other hand was easier to teach, since he knew how to fight to some extent. Fiend took him aside, and they practiced for a bit. Then Fiend handed Specs over to Seal, who taught him how to shoot darts. He had to start somewhere, Seal had stated.

Two and a half hours later, David and Specs emerged from the warehouse. David was black and blue, and felt like he had been run over by a boulder, he was sure that every rib was bruised and his arms felt like they were going to fall off from blocking, or rather _trying_ to block October's pummels. Spec's head was a bit sore, since Seal had clubbed him over the head every time he missed the dart board.

Willow and a kid named Trader were standing outside of the warehouse waiting for them when they came out. Trader was holding some brown paper bags.

Willow smiled at them as they came out, "I brought you guys lunch." she said, motioning to the bags that Trader was holding. Trader elbowed her in the ribs.

"Ok, HE got you lunch." She said glaring at Trader's deep blue eyes, which were glaring right back.

"Alright you two, knock it off." Said October, stepping between his sister and Trader, and taking the paper bags from him. Then he handed two of the bags to Seal and Fiend. They looked in them.

"HAM!" Squealed Fiend, his voice higher than normal.

"Cheese." Said Seal, his mouth watering.

October opened his bag, "BREAD! We can have sandwiches."

"How DO you do it?" Fiend asked, admiration showing in his voice, which had deepened to it's normal tone.

Trader turned red, "I have a better looking face than YOU." he said simply.

It was true that Trader was handsome, dark brown hair, and piercing blue eyes, but then again, most of Cobra's boys were good looking, for some reason. Cobra, however, was the only other person who could get away with trading newspapers, for food.

October pulled out his dagger, and began to saw at the bread, but Willow snatched it away from him,

"Inside with it. You aren't eating on the street." She snapped, and pushed them back inside.

Once inside, she sat David and Specs down, and inspected them, there wasn't much that she could do about the bruising, so she let them go to eat and lectured October and Seal about being to hard on them so soon. Of course they didn't listen, they just made her think that they were.……………………..

A few hours later

Cobra leaned back in a booth at his favorite restraunt, despite the fact that it was in Harlem, and waited for his spies and such to show up. Fiend, October, and Seal all came in at the same time, and after a few minutes, all of his spies had shown up. All fifteen of them, well, eighteen, if you included October and them……Cobra's top spies, and henchmen. The Fifteen, were Cobra's elite. His fighters. His unknown. The ones that every leader in New York was dying to find out who they were. Some of them they knew, but they didn't know that they were part of Cobra's elite circle. And they never would…

Cobra looked over them, to make sure that everyone was there. Satisfied that they were, he asked for silence and began giving out orders.

"October." October looked up and nodded. "I want you to shadow City, I want to know everything that goes on with him, all the way down to what SIDE he sleeps on. Understood?"

October nodded his head and cracked his knuckles.

"Ok, good. Seal." Seal looked at Cobra and smiled

"Yes?"

Cobra arched a eyebrow, "I want you do the same with Jersey."

Seal nodded. Cobra looked over the pack for Fiend, then looked up. Sure enough, he was on the beams.

"Get down here." Cobra snapped, glaring up at him. Fiend grinned and dropped to the ground.

Cobra nodded his head approvingly, "I want you, to keep an eye on the Bronx, I don't need them turning unfriendly on me."

Fiend didn't say anything, just stared at Cobra. Cobra shook his head in exasperation, then told the rest of his boys what he wanted them to do.

Afterwards, Cobra pulled October, Fiend and Seal aside.

"I want you three to do a good job. I know you always do, but, this time I'm asking a lot more. So do a good job." he said, playing with his dagger, and smelling the air.

Seal and Fiend nodded, never questioning their leader's commands, but October looked troubled,

"What about the new guys, we were supposed to teach them to fight." He said, his brows knit together.

Cobra narrowed his eyes, "I'll take care of that. You worry about your jobs."

That took care of October's question, and the three of them vanished into the darkness, each going to their designated boroughs…..

Cobra sighed and headed back to Sugar Hill, thinking about how he was going to train Davey and Specs. He walked for awhile thinking, until he reached his border. Then he rattled off the password, and went into his territory. Once he reached their building, he slipped in through a upper window, in hopes of not being seen going to the loft on the rafters.

He didn't want to be seen, because, it was Thursday night, and on Thursday nights, the little ones got to pick someone to tell them a story, and he usually got picked.

This night was no different, and even through he crept silently across the beam, Olaf still saw him.

"COBRA!!!" Olaf yelled, he never called his brother by his real name, except when they were alone.

Cobra gave a slight growl and dropped down from the beam, then let himself be drug over to his chair by Olaf, and the Spanish twins, Knick and Knack, who were also two of Cobra's relay runners.

Olaf pushed his brother into the chair and then clamored up onto his knee, grinning. Cobra gave a piercing glare to David and Specs, warning them to keep their mouths, shut. Then he looked down at Knick and Knack, and the few other small ones.

"Ok, what story do you want to hear?" he asked, praying that it would be anything other than _Aslauga's Knight_. He normally enjoyed telling the slightly romantic tale, but, with the two Mad Hatters here, he knew he'd feel like an idiot.

Olaf looked thoughtful, then looked up, "Hvor er boka, Cobra?" (_Where's the book_, _Cobra?_)

Bouncer got up and pulled a small, leather bound book out of the handmade bookcase, and took it to Cobra, who handed it to Olaf. Olaf grinned and began flipping through the book, until he found a story he liked. Then he handed it to Cobra. Cobra looked at the story, _The Two Capitan's_.

"_Well, I suppose I can survive through this. At least it wasn't Undine, or Aslauga's Knight………" _He thought.

Then he began the story, painfully translating the Norwegian into English as he read.

Read a sentence, then translate……….

"En mild sommeraften hvilte på kystene av Malaga. _A mild summer evening was resting on the shores of Malaga……….…"_

It was incredibly difficult, having to translate. As he read, he made up his mind to teach Olaf English.

A half hour later, Cobra quit reading, for one, Olaf and the others were asleep, and his brain was going numb from translating. He got up and tucked each of the twins under his arms, and Willow got Olaf, and they put them to bed. Cobra collapsed shortly after, and slept more soundly than he had in a while…………


	8. Chapter 8

**YAY! An update on Christmas. Sorry that this chapter is so short, but I have had horrible writers block. Anyways...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies. The charecters are mine, unless their yours...you guys know the drill.**

Chapter 7

The same night in Queens

October crept down a dark, Bronx alleyway, closely following City, who had just come out on the better end of a fight. This had given October a good look at City's fighting skills, something Cobra would be happy to know. October smiled at the thought and slowed down a bit, he was getting too close to his, _prey_, so to speak.

City wasn't hard to follow, his massive form was easy to see, even at night, unless of course, you happened to be in a _very_ dark alleyway…

October followed City, all the way to the Queens Lodging House, and watched him prepare for bed, taking careful note of everything, all the way down to, what side he slept on……………….

Seal, on the other hand, was having a easier time, since Jersey was staying at his favorite haunt, and small cantina, in Spanish Harlem.

Jersey stayed there until nine or so, and had a meeting with some of his boys, in which Seal learned some valuable information, about Jersey's plans for the war. After the meeting was over, Jersey went back to the Lodging House for the night, with Seal close behind him……………….

Fiend, however, was having a good time up in the Bronx, because HE didn't have to hide. Instead, he was just playing cards, and buttering up Johnny "Curly" Granger, convincing

him of the evils of Jersey and City, who, he had found out had sent ambassadors to Johnny, to see who he would side with. He had said he'd think about it.

But now, with Fiend there, he wasn't so sure. Especially after he had been told about the consequences of going against Cobra. Of course, Cobra would never do any of the things that Fiend had told Johnny he'd do, but Johnny wasn't to bright anyways, and wouldn't know the difference.

So Fiend spent the night in the Bronx, and grinned all night long in his sleep, about his apparent success……………….

_Manhattan Lodging House_

_Same Time_

Stress, came bounding into the Lodging House and waved to Kloppman, her light brown hair a mess, from her running. She charged up the stairs, and looked around for Jack, who was reading, and worrying himself to death, at the same time.

"JACK!" she hollered, as she bounded over to his bunk.

He jumped, and put down his pamphlet, which he hadn't been reading, just staring blankly at the page.

"WHAT?" he yelled back.

She hopped on foot for a minute, "Well……I just got back from Harlem……"

"Obviously." Jack snapped, sitting up. "And?"

Racetrack looked up from trying to entertain Skittery, and the bunkhouse got quiet.

Stress waited for a minute, so the suspense could build up. When the suspense was so thick that you could cut it with a knife, she went on,

"And, I didn't find anything." The whole room groaned. "BUT." she said quickly, "There not in Harlem." she said smiling.

The room let out a sigh, but Jack wasn't relived,

"So there still out there somewhere." he said, wearily.

"Yeah, but I ALMOST got caught, by those Harlem boys." she said, hoping Jack would give her some sympathy. Which he didn't.

He was too busy worrying some more.

Stress sighed loudly, and tromped over to her bunk, and flopped loudly down on it. Racetrack groaned and gave up entertaining, or rather _trying_ to entertain Skittery and went over to Jack, and slapped him on the leg.

"Heya Jack, you know, you got to rest Jack, all this worrying ain't good for you." he said, looking up at Jack.

"Yeah, Jack, you haven't eaten since they went missing." Said Blink, coming over to stand next Racetrack, who was chewing on his cigar, like usual.

Jack looked down at his friends, and was glad to have friends like them,

"Yeah, I know, but we've got to find them." he said

"I know we do Jack, but worrying yourself to the bone, ain't going to bring them back." Race said and Blink nodded

Jack nodded, "I know."

He turned to looked at Stress, "Did you find anything about Queens, Stressie?"

Stress flipped over, so that her back was facing him, and Jack frowned. He recognized the game, and sighed.

"Stress, I'm sorry, that the Harlem boys almost got you." he knew that she'd been lying about that, she probably had _seen_ some of the Harlem boys, but not been chased by them, but he said he was sorry anyways.

She looked over her shoulder at him, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Then she sat up,

"Yeah, they're joining Harlem, that's all I found out." she said, getting solemn at Jack's expression.

"Oh. Thanks Stress." he said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping.

Race frowned and looked at the floor, and Blink looked sad, no smile going across his face.

"We'll find them, guys." Jack said, hoping to boost moral a bit. "After we sell tomorrow, we'll spread out over the city, and look for them. They've got to be somewhere."

Race and Blink nodded and Skitts sat up, looking hopeful, "Can I come Jack?" he asked,

feeling responsible for Specs.

"Yeah, if you want." Jack looked up as Kloppman came in, and asked Jack to come downstairs. Jack nodded and jumped off his bunk, and followed Kloppy to the lobby, where he was greeted by a tearful Mrs. Jacobs.

"Have they come back yet?" she asked through tears, hugging Jack.

Jack patted her back and got nervous,

"Well…….no, but we're looking for them, I'm sure they're fine, Mrs. Jacobs."

"Are…..you sure?" she asked, letting go of him and looking at him hopefully.

"Yeah, and we'll find Davey, and bring him back." he said, not really convincing himself, but hoping that he was convincing Mrs. Jacobs.

She wiped her eyes, and nodded,

"Thank you Jack, I'm….I'm sure you'll find David, and bring him back."

_Same Night_

_Brooklyn Lodging House_

Two nights after Ad had gotten beaten up by Cobra at the docks, he finally decided to ask Spot about what that had been about.

"Heya Spot?" Ad asked, as he approached Spot's bunk, which was in the middle of the bunkroom, so that he could know what was going on in the whole room, and not have to ever move.

Spot looked up from polishing a slingshot that he had just made, and let Advantage approach.

"Yeah Ad?"

Ad rolled his sleeves up a bit more, and winced a bit as he did, since he still had broken ribs,

"Well Spot, I was wondering about the other day, with Harlem. What was that all about?" he asked, his gray eyes searching Spot's cyan ones, before looking away.

Spot carefully smoothed a rough place on the handle with his pocket knife, and shrugged,

"It was just a test, that's all." He said simply.

Ad crossed his arms, "A test of WHAT, Spot?"

Spot was about to answer, but one of his boys came running up the stairs, yelling for him. He stood up and stalked over to the boy, shoving his cane into the boys chest,

"WHAT is this all about?!" he asked coolly.

The boy trembled a bit and swallowed, "There's a runner from Harlem down stairs, she……says she wants to talk to you."

Spot nodded, and _sauntered,_ down the stairs into the lobby, where he was met by Puck, who was mad at the Queens boys, who had once again, chased her. Spot watched her storming around the lobby, then held out his cane, and stopped her. She turned and looked at him and smiled a bit.

Spot didn't smile back, be just narrowed his eyes, and crossed his arms,

"What. Do. YOU. Want?" he asked coldly.

Puck scratched the back of her leg with her foot,

"Cobra wants to know if your staying neutral, or siding with someone, and if so, who?" she said

Spot thought a minute, then smirked, "Tell Cobra……that I'll give him answer…..in three days."

Puck's eyes got wide, and she huffed. "The war will be OVER by then." she spat, turning, and storming out the door, before Spot could say anything.

Spot stood there, a bit shocked, then went back upstairs, trying to remember what he had been doing………………………


	9. Chapter 9

**YAY! An update...Anyways, really short chapter, and it probably makes no sense at all, but...I had really bad WB, so, yeah. Anyways...A big thank you to the reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I don't know Newsies, or the people in them...The rest are mine, unless their yours.**

Chapter 8

Puck sauntered down the Brooklyn alleyways, until she knew she was in Queens, then she began to run, not wanting to get caught in Queens, again.

However, as she ran down the side streets, she got turned around somehow, and ended up in a part of Queens she didn't know. She stopped in a alleyway, and started backing up, most alleys didn't bother her, but there was something…. different, about this one. It seemed…. blacker, than most alleys at night. She backed up, then turned, only to find herself looking at a very large chest. Puck gasped, as a large hand grabbed her shoulder, and picked her up.

"What have we here?" the large boy asked. Puck struggled and kicked at him, but the pressure he was putting on her shoulder was making her arm go numb, and it hurt to move much. Another boy, that was standing behind her captor, laughed,

"Looks like a little Harlem girl." he whined through his nose, in that grating, annoying way.

Some of the other boys that were there, laughed. Her captor laughed too, and turned to the others.

"What would a sweet little thing like her be doing in this part of Queens?" he asked, grinning wickedly at Puck.

The other boys cackled, "YEAH! What would she be doing here? Huh sweetie?" one brave, and, consequently, stupid boy asked, coming up to her, and touching her hair.

Puck swung around with her foot, and nailed him, in a place where the sun, or, moon, in this case, don't shine. He fell with a squeal, and hopped off, cursing.

The whiny voiced boy came up to her, and belted her across the mouth, while her captor was still holding her.

"Put. Me. DOWN!" Puck yelled after he hit her. She wiped the blood off her face, and struggled again.

Her captor smiled grimly, and shook her. "What are you doing here, sweetie?" he asked, shoving his face close to hers.

Puck clenched her teeth, and glared at him, not planning on answering any time soon.

He snarled, and dropped her, kicking her in the stomach when she hit the ground. Puck cried out, and held her stomach, then jumped up, and swung at him. Some of the other boys, grabbed her and pulled her back, holding her arms.

Charlie, the one that had been holding her, stepped forward and clubbed her across the head, knocking Puck out. She slumped down, between the two boys that were holding her, and a thin stream of blood trickled out her nose.

The two boys looked up at Charlie,

"What are we going to do with her, Charlie?" one of them asked

He looked thoughtful, which was a great feat for him,

"I guess will take her to City, if she's a spy, or a runner for Harlem, she might know something. We'll take her to City." he finally said, with a air of authority.

The two boys nodded, and Charlie slung Puck over his shoulder, while a small detachment of the boys broke off, and went back to the Lodging House, and the rest of the boys went back on patrol.

Puck woke up about halfway there, and started beating Charlie on the head, till he clubbed her again, knocking her out again. She stayed out the rest of the way to the Lodging House, with blood running off her face where she had been belted and clubbed………………..

_Sugar Hill_

_Sometime next morning _

Cobra awoke at his usual time, which was five thirty. He had no clock, but he had always gotten up at that time, so it was routine for him. He quietly got out of bed, and slipped on his pants and shirt over his union suit, then went out into the main area. Willow was still sitting in a chair, sound asleep. He went over and shook her wake.

"Morning." he said, as she opened her eyes. "Has Puck come back?"

Willow yawned, and pushed her hair back, "No…….I would be in bed if………..she had." she replied, getting up, and leaning on Cobra's chest. He pushed her away, and bounded out the door, yelling back over his shoulder to get everyone up for him.

She sighed, and started yelling for everyone to get up. Bouncer and Tic were the first out of bed, followed by Olaf, and then the others.

Specs woke up with the others, but David stayed out, since he had gotten beaten up worse the day before. When Willow came in the boys bunkroom yelling, the boys scrambled to get dressed, and hurried out of the room. David, was unfortunately still out. Will smiled at his sleeping form grimly, and went out, returning with a bucket of water, which she dumped on his back. David lept out of bed with a yelp, and glared at her, not really knowing what to do, he was so confused and tired.

"Get up ya bum." Will said, walking out with the bucket.

Davy stood there, wet and in a bad mood. He looked down at his wet clothes, and sighed, he didn't have any others to put on. So he put his pants and shirt on, and went outside. Everyone else but Specs was gone, he had waited for David to come out, before leaving to get papers………………

_Somewhere in Harlem_

Jersey was out selling on his normal corner, (which was under a big oak tree, thus giving him the best selling spot) and had just sold a paper to a old lady, when suddenly, he was grabbed by the neck, and drug into a near by alley. The old lady looked back, shocked, and hurried down the crowded street.

In the dark alley, Cobra slammed Jersey into the wall, and held him there,

"WHERE. IS. SHE?" Cobra hissed in Jersey's face while smashing him repeatedly into the brick wall.

Jersey was thoroughly confused, he honestly didn't know what Cobra was talking about.

"Where's…….who?" he asked, his back aching from the brick wall.

"My runner. PUCK. WHERE IS SHE?" he asked again, pushing Jersey up higher on the wall, shredding the back of his shirt as he did so, for the bricks were sharp and rough.

"I don't know……..nothing about…..your runner." Jersey said, cleanching his teeth in pain. Cobra got that he didn't know anything, and dropped Jersey like a sack of potatoes, then took off back to Sugar Hill.

Jersey slid down the wall, and thought about maybe just letting the Manhatten Newsies go……..but then what would his boys say, they were on the war path, and he would be letting them down, and then there was City………….and he didn't want to get on HIS bad side, because he might be worse than Cobra…………….

_Queens Logding House_

Charlie and the other boys, had dumped unconscious Puck into a back room, and left her there, knowing that City wouldn't want to be bothered with it that late at night. However, October saw Charlie bring bleeding Puck in, and cursed. He watched were they put her, then made sure City was asleep, before taking off to find on of Cobra's Queens contacts, so he could let Cobra know where she was, cause he knew that Cobra would be worried.

Sometime after October had left, Puck had woken up with a headache, and tried to escape, but was caught by Charlie, who gave her a beating, and then tossed her back into the room like a rag doll. He then went to bed, knowing she wouldn't be waking up again that night to make any more escape attempts.

The runner that October had had sent out, reached Cobra the next morning, after he had come back from threatening Jersey. Cobra just about had a fit when he found out they had taken Puck prisoner, and stormed off, not bothering to sell, he was in too bad of a mood, and wouldn't sell anything anyways. So he went off swimming……………

Specs and David were having a hard time with their selling, since they had been abandoned by anyone, and had to figure things out on their own. Specs was having a harder time than David, because it was harder for him to be polite, were as David had no trouble in that area. But they got the job done, a bit slower than normal, but done none the less……


	10. Chapter 10

**Well, here is the next chapter. Sorry for the long wait everyone. BUT its a longer one this time. :)**

**Disclaimer: You people all know how it goes.**

Chapter 9

While Cobra was swimming, he tried to figure out a way to steal, or negotiate Puck back from City. The solution, however, was eluding him, which aggravated him to no end. After a half hour of swimming, he went back to the 'Lodging House', and thought for awhile. He sat in his chair, and stared at the floor, deep in thought. Fifteen minutes later, he gave up a bit, and went out to go sell the evening edition. As he was going to the small distribution center, he ran into David and Specs, coming back from their hard day of selling. It was then that the idea hit Cobra, the idea that he could get Davey to help him in negotiating Puck back. After all, David _had_ helped Jack Kelly with the strike.

"Hey, you." Cobra said as he walked by David, and grabbed him by the back of the shirt collar.

David's eyes bugged out a bit, and he took a step back, so as to release some of the pressure on his neck. Cobra looked up at the sky out of the corner of his good eye, and spun Davey around, so that he was facing him. David looked up at Cobra and swallowed.

"Yes?" he asked, still having a hard time breathing, beings that Cobra still had a hold of his collar.

Cobra looked down at David, and almost smiled,

"I want you to help me. I want you to help me negotiate my runner Puck, back out of Queens. You will help me do this, _right_?" Cobra said, telling, not asking David to help him. Sure, Cobra could have gotten Puck out without any help, but he wanted to see what David was made of.

David bit his lip, and tried to keep eye contact with Cobra, but the icy blue eye and cold white one, were too menacing just then, and Davey couldn't keep his own eyes on Cobra's face.

"Of…..of course…..I will." David choked out, trying to ignore the beads of sweat running down his face, and that his hands were shaking, he had never been this intimidated before, and it was scaring him.

Cobra smiled a bit more, and let go of David. Then he spun around, and went on his way.

"Good, I knew you would. Meet me at the park, in half a hour." He called over his shoulder, as he walked away.

David nodded to Cobra's back, and rubbed his neck, then turned to Specs, who had watched the whole thing in silence, and the two of them went inside, to cool off abit.

"Wonder where everybody is." Specs said, as he slumped down the cool brick wall, and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"I don't know." replied Davey, looking around the empty building, and wiping the sweat off his face. "But I think its hotter up here, than down in Manhattan."

Specs nodded, and sighed, "I wonder what Jack and the others are doing right now……"

_ Manhattan _

"Alright everybody!" Jack yelled, from the top of the Horace Greeley statue, to the small group of Newsies that were waiting for orders.

Racetrack looked up at Jack and squinted, while wiping his face,

"We're listenin' Jack." he said, Blink and Mush nodded their agreement.

Skittery was leaning against the base of the statue, sweating profusely, and looking like he was dying. "Yeah….Jack, we're listening…..but hurry up, I can't …….take much more of this heat." he said, coughing a bit.

Jack nodded and ran his hand through his greasy brown hair,

"Ok….Me and Race will go to Brooklyn, and see if Spot knows anything else. Blink and Mush, you go into upper 'Hatten. See if you can find out anything, since that's the last place they were."

Race frowned up at Jack,

"Jack….I know we got to find Davey and Specs…..but do _I _have to go to Brooklyn with ya? I wasn't made to stand this heat, ya know." he said, whining a little tiny bit, and wiping some more sweat off his face, with his sleeve.

Stress came up behind Racetrack, and nudged him aside,

"Stop your whining Race. But if you don't want to go…..I'll go for ya." she said, smiling up at Jack.

Jack frowned, and shook his head, then jumped off the statue, to sit in its shade with dying Skittery.

"I don't think that's a good idea Stress. Race will go with me."

Race melted into a puddle next to Jack, and Stress pushed out her bottom lip and gave Jack 'the look', before walking away. Jack shook his head and sighed as he leaned back into the shade as much as he could. Race looked at Jack out of the top of his eyes and wiped his face yet again,

"Come on Jack, do I _have_ to go? Somebody needs to stay here with Skitts, ya know." he said, casting a glance at Skittery, who had his eyes closed and was breathing hard.

Jack looked at Race, almost smiling at the pitiful look that he had on his face, then shook his head,

"No Race, I need you to come with me. Crutchy and Snipeshooter and Itey will be here to watch Skittery." he replied, getting up, and going over to Bumlets, Pie Eater, and Jake, to tell them where to go.

Racetrack sighed and glanced up at the sun, then the street. You could see the heat waves, dancing on the cobblestones. There was a bit of a breeze, but it was just enough to make you mad. Race hoped desperately, that it would be cooler in Brooklyn…………..

_ Queens_

Puck had woken up sometime that morning, to find her self in a dark, hot, backroom, of she didn't know _where_. But she had a sneaking suspicion that she was in Queens still, especially after she had felt her head, and the bruises that were there.

"Dumb Queensers, they'll pay for this." she growled to herself, as she began searching for a way out, but stopped and collapsed on the ground, when she heard someone coming.

"Shut up Charlie." City growled, as he pushed Charlie back, and went to the backroom door, were he had been informed, that a little Harlem spy was staying.

Charlie swallowed, and backed away, while City opened the door, and looked down at Puck, who papered to still be out.

"That's one of Cobra's runner's." he growled, then turned to Charlie, Where'd you pick her up?" he asked

Charlie came forward, "Down in the bad part of town, where we were patrolling last night, City." he said

"Hmmm." City replied, going into the room, and picking Puck up, looking at her head, "You boys certainly beat her up enough, didn't you?" he asked, turning to Charlie. Before he could answer, he had Puck shoved in his arms,

"Do you realize that Cobra's going to be all over us now? You idiot. Take her, and clean up those wounds." he snapped, pushing by Charlie, and going out the door, to finish selling.

As soon as she heard City leave, Puck came alive, and hit the unsuspecting Charlie, then bolted like a rabbit. Charlie was in shock for a minute, then made chase, but didn't get very far, since it was hot, and he was a few pounds heavier than most newsboys.

Puck flew down the streets, despite the heat, and tore down an alleyway, crashing into David and Cobra, who were coming to find her. David yelped, it seemed to him, that people ran into him an awful lot. Cobra caught her, and pulled her into a quick brother-like hug,

"I was getting worried. Are you ok?" he asked, pushing back her unruly hair.

Puck pushed his hand back, and smiled her smile, "Yeah, I'm fine." she said, even though she knew he'd see the gashes, and carry her back to Sugar Hill.

He did see them, but said nothing. Instead he turned, and headed back to the Bronx.

David looked at Puck and followed, and Puck quickly ran after them, not wanting to be alone in Queens again. After walking in silence for about two blocks, Cobra finally spoke up,

"What was Conlon's answer Puck?"

She came up next to him, for she had been walking behind the two, and looked up at Cobra,

"He said, that he'd give an answer in three days, two now……" she replied, and waited for Cobra's outburst.

It never came. He just nodded, and kept walking. But Puck knew, just by looking at him, that he was on the line of fury, and barley controlled rage. Because he was quiet, and cold, and just had this air about him. The air that one false move, and you were dead.

David didn't notice anything, and kept his mouth shut, a wise move on his part…………

Charlie watched Puck disappear around the corner, and sighed, wiped his face, and started slowly back to the Lodging House. He knew that City wasn't going to be happy about this…..or would he?

_ Brooklyn _

It was the second time that Ad approached Spot about his…….test. He really hadn't got much of an answer last time, since Puck had showed up, and it hadn't been brought up since then.

This time, Ad approached him at the Distribution Center, waiting to get the evening edition.

"Hey, Spot?" he asked, coming up to said Brooklyn leader.

Spot looked up, from where he had been staring at the ground, deep in thought, and raised a eyebrow at Ad,

"Yeah?" he asked, his cyan eyes searching Ad's, wondering what he wanted.

Ad held the stare for a few seconds, then looked away, at Spunk, who was standing on the edge of the small group. It was so hot, so most of the Newsies, were trying to find anywhere cool. Forget the evening paper, they'd rather be hungry, than die from the heat.

"Well……I was wondering about what I asked about the other night. About me getting beat up." he said, bringing his focus back to Spot.

Spot leaned on the gate and looked at the few newsies, then back at Advantage,

"It was just that. A test. To see how good you really are." Spot said simply.

Ad looked at him in shock, "And I got broken ribs out of it, just to prove if I was good enough?" he asked, a bit upset.

Spot shrugged, "Well, your one of the few people that said with him that long." he replied, as the gate opened, and he walked in and up to the window, were he demanded his papers.

Ad followed, got his papers, then went back out into the small courtyard. He was about to pursue the matter further, but, once again, was cut off by a runner, actually, it was one of Spot's birdies.

"SPOT!" Bittah yelled, as she barreled into the courtyard, panting and choking from the heat.

Ad caught her, as she collapsed, and pulled her over to the shade of the building. Spot watched her, and waited most impatiently for her to catch her breath.

"Well?" he asked, when she had calmed down some.

"I have news, about the war." she said, mopping her face, and pushing her hair back up into her cap.

Spot leaned on the gold tipped cane, "Yes?"

Bittah stretched her legs out, and undid the first two buttons on her shirt,

"Night before last, some of City's boys, caught and beat up Puck, Cobra's runner. That's all I found out, but she never made it back to Sugar Hill, after she left, here." she said, waiting for her leaders reaction.

"How did you find this out?" he asked, glancing at Ad out of the corner of his eye.

"One of the Queens implants." she replied.

Ad grinned, "Birds of a feather." he said, as he walked over to Spunk and talked with her, while Spot was getting his info from Bittah.

Spot narrowed his eyes at her, "One of MY implants, or one of Cobra's?" he asked

Bittah shook her head, "Can't say." she replied, getting up, having cooled off some.

Spot glared at her, but didn't reply. If it _had_ been one of Cobra's implants, she wouldn't have known. And if it was one of _his_ implants, she wouldn't know either, so he left the subject alone, and stalked off to sell his papers………….

_ Harlem Manhattan_

Kid Blink, and Mush stood on a somewhat empty street in Upper Manhattan and looked across the street, to the Harlem side. Neither of them, were going to venture across the street, for they had seen some of the Harlem boys, watching them from the ally. After a couple of minutes of staring at each other, one of the Harlem boys came out of the shadows, and into the street.

"Whada you two want?" he yelled across to them.

Mush and Blink looked at each other, then Blink came out into the street as well. The two boys looked at each other, like dogs that didn't know each other. Blink, made the first move,

"We're looking for our friends. They was last up here, never came home." he said, looking at the other boy, waiting for answer.

Harlem smirked, "Yeah, they was here. We beat them up pretty bad, but two of our boys got hurt bad too. But, they ain't here anymore."

Manhattan folded his arms. "Then……were are they?" he asked, worried about David and Specs. But most about David, he wasn't really the fighting type.

"Them sugar coated weasels up in north Harlem, they got them." Harlem spat, showing his hate for the Sugar Hill newsies.

Blink looked back at Mush, then backed up, "Thanks for the info." he said to Harlem, then went back to Mush.

"Come on Mush my man, got to tell Jack." he said, grabbing Mush's arm, and pulling him towards Lower 'Hatten.

"Tell him what?" Mush asked, following Blink like a puppy down the street.

Blink smiled, and pulled Mush into a ally, and shook him,

"They're in Sugar Hill, with Cobra! They'll be ok there!" he said, shaking his friend.

Mush smiled, widely, slapped Blink on the back.

"They're ok!" he said, and took off, this time, Blink following, trying to keep up with his friend………


	11. Chapter 11

**YAY! A update! Yeah...anyhow. A big thanks to the reviewers, its the olny thing thats keeping me writting on this...**

**Disclaimer: I do not known Newsies, the places, or people thereof. I do not own any of the characters that are yours. I only own, what is mine.**

Chapter 10

Cobra's insert in the Bronx, Fiend, lazily left the small run down Bronx lodging house, a small smile on his face, and headed slowly back to Sugar Hill, to find Cobra, and tell him Curly's decision.

After being visited by not only City's 'delegation', but Jersey's as well, Curly had decided, with no small help from Fiend, to stay neutral. That way, no one would be mad. And if there was anything that Curly Granger hated more than anything, it was to have people mad at him.

And it was with this proclamation from Curly, that dark haired Fiend, had left the building, in high spirits, in such high spirits, that he stole a police officer's hat off his head. Chase was given, and Fiend got away, for he was lithe and fast, whereas the officer, was middle-aged, and didn't do much, besides saunter around on his patrol route.

Fiend chuckled to himself, as the officer ran past him panting and blowing, then, once he was out of sight, he ducked down the ally, went across the Harlem/Bronx bridge, and into Sugar Hill.

"HEY COBRA!" he yelled, when he saw Cobra, Puck, and David in front of him.

Cobra stopped and turned around, raising a eyebrow at approaching Fiend.

"What?" he asked, when Fiend had come up to them.

"Well, The Bronx…….is staying neutral." he said, glancing at Puck worriedly.

"Queens." Cobra said, seeing Fiend's worried look.

"Ah….."

David sighed, and wiped his face off with his sleeve. Cobra glared at him. Puck and Fiend looked up at Cobra, waiting.

Silence. A slight breeze blew in off the water, cooling the foursome a little. Puck scratched the back of her leg with her foot. Cobra sighed.

"Well……back to the house….need to get Puck cleaned up." he said, and started off.

They followed in silence. Something was brewing in Cobra's mind, and silence was the best choice just then……………..

_Brooklyn Bridge_

Jack and Racetrack sauntered across the long bridge, going into Brooklyn. Luckily for Race, it was cooler on the bridge, because of breeze off of the water. Race however, was in a bit of a bad mood. One, Jack was walking to fast, and two, Race and Spot had a bet that no one knew about. And he was about to lose that bet, as Brooklyn came into view.

Race looked back to Manhattan, and wondered if he could run back. Jack didn't notice that he had stopped, so he slowly began walking back to Manhattan.

"RACE!" Jack said, hearing him leaving. Race stopped, and sighed,

"what?" he asked, looking back at Jack, who had stopped and was looking at him.

"Get back here." Jack said, adjusting his cowboy hat.

Racetrack slowly came back to Jack, and when he had reached him, he glared up at Jack.

"Why don't you want to be in Brooklyn? You always like coming over here." Jack said, starting off again.

Race pulled his cigar out of his pocket, and stuck it in his mouth.

"You wouldn't understand." he muttered around said cigar, and trailed after Jack, who was walking fast again……………………

_Queens_

City pushed back his long black hair into a ponytail, and then picked his papers up from where he had set them. He looked over a couple pages in the back, looking for something interesting, then shouted out the headline. There were few people out, since it was so hot, but the ones that were out, braving the heat, weren't interested in buying a paper, and hurried on past City, and the few other newsboys that were out. The rest, were swimming in the river, trying to stay as cool as possible.

He sighed, and glanced at his papers, he figured there were about twenty or so left. That created a problem, since he couldn't return them or anything. Now, if had been winter, he would have taken them back to the Lodging House, and used them for firewood, but oh no. It had to be summer, and sweltering outside, and inside for that matter, so there really wasn't anyway to get rid of the unsellable papers.

In a ally close by, October watched City carefully, trying to learn anything that might be useful to Cobra. His last couple of days had been fairly un-productive, but tiring, since City seemed to walk all over his territory a lot…….

October looked up, when he heard a somewhat familiar voice, getting louder as it came closer. He peeked out of the ally, and saw Jersey, shaking hands with City. Jersey was dwarfed by tall City, and it was difficult to tell which had more brains, for unlike most tall husky guys, City wasn't just all brawn, he had his fair share of brains. But putting Jersey and City together……only meant trouble.

'_Well, at least I'll have something to report to Cobra……' _he thought, watching the two plot.

A hand suddenly, but softly rested on October's shoulder, and he jumped, whirled around, launching a fast fist. But it was caught, and October cursed softly, when Seal grinned back at him, then let go of his hand.

"I forgot that you're with Jersey." October whispered, keeping a eye on his tall charge.

Seal grinned, and pushed his light hair off his sweaty face,

"Yeah…..I am. Did ya hear that Curly's staying neutral?" he asked.

October shook his head, and moved so that he could see City, who had moved out of his range on vision.

"No….I didn't….did you hear that City's boys kidnapped Puck?"

"Yeah…….I think all of New York knew about that. Birdies that don't know how to keep their beaks shut." Seal replied, smacking his fist into his hand.

October snorted, and they both fell into silence, watching and listening……………

_Brooklyn_

"Spot." Ad said, looking at the approaching figures, and rolling his sleeves up again.

Spot looked down at Ad, then up at Jack and Race. His mouth curled into a smirk when he saw Racetrack, tagging slowly behind Jack. He got up out of the shade, and adjusted his cap.

"Heya Spot." Jack said, coming up to him and spitting in his hand.

The gesture was repeated by the Brooklyn leader, and they shook. Then Spot looked at Race, and held his hand out. Racetrack groaned, and pulled a few coins out of his pocket, and put them in Spot's open hand.

"Jack made me come." Race growled, glaring at Jack.

Spot shrugged. "Like I care." he said, then turned back to Jack. "SO, what brings you two over here?" he asked.

Jack messed with his red bandanna a bit, "We wanted to find out, if you know of anything else about Davey and Specs….."

"I don't know much else, besides what I overheard from Cobra's runner." he said, leaning back on a crate. "But they are with Cobra, I think."

Jack sighed, a bit relieved, and nodded, "Ok…..I hope they are…..at least they'll be safe there." he said

Spot snorted, "New York isn't going to be safe in a bit, except maybe 'Hatten and Da Bronx." he said

"Whaddya mean?" Race asked, chewing nervously on his cigar again.

"Borough war. Harlem and Queens, going up against Cobra." Advantage said, his gray eyes flashing a bit.

"Yesterday night, Queens took one of Cobra's runner's hostage, after she was here, I don't know if they got her back or not. But Cobra's on the warpath, and you'd better hope that Davey and Specs aren't in the way, Jacky-boy." Spot said, leaving his cane at Jack's chest. "Cause if they are…….." Spot made a strangling noise, and narrowed his eyes.

Jack nodded his head and thought for a minute. Spot watched him, waiting to see what he was going to do. After a minute of absolute silence, Jack spoke up,

"Spot…..is there anyway that I could get in contact with them? I don't think it would be safe to try and go through Harlem…..not with them being unfriendly and all……."

Spot nodded, and Ad stepped forward, with a trustworthy and fast runner.

"Tell him your message." Ad said, wincing a bit, as the runner bumped into him.

Race, who had been watching Ad, and had noticed the black bruises on him, and they way he walked very carefully, came up to him, while Jack was giving the runner the message.

"Heya Ad……what happened to you?" he asked, around his cigar, while looking up at Advantage.

Ad frowned, "Cobra. That's what happened to me." he said, still puzzled about that whole thing, beings that Spot still hadn't told him.

"Hope Davey's ok…….." Race said, thinking that if Cobra could do that to someone like Ad, what could he do to David………………

_Sugar Hill_

After Cobra had gotten Will to patch Puck up, he sauntered down to the riverside park, to think, and try to cool off. He wasn't really made for this sort of heat, if he had been, he would have been darker than he was.

As he strolled down a dark narrow side street, a fiery figure flew out of an ally that he passed, and knocked him to the ground, and started to pummel him.

"KID! STOP IT!" he hissed, knocking her off with a well aimed punch to the jaw. It was a gentle punch, but enough to knock her off. Kid, was the only girl that he would willingly hit, but that was because she deserved it. ALL the time.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU COME AFTER ME?!" she snarled, punching his side, while he got up.

Cobra didn't answer, but walked off, in a worse mood than before. Kid jumped up and ran after him, intent on finding out why he hadn't come to get her.

"Cobra!" she hollered.

He ignored her and kept walking. When they reached the bridge, that went into New Jersey, he stopped and looked at Kid,

"Stop. Bugging. Me." he snapped.

She grinned. "Not until you tell me why you didn't come after me."

Cobra sighed, picked her up, and held her over the edge of the bridge,

"How much do you want to keep pushing me?" he asked.

Kid grabbed onto his arms, and trembled,

"N-no……you wouldn't d-dare." she stammered, looking down at the water fearfully.

The drop to the water wasn't far, maybe only ten feet, but Kid was terrified of water. Cobra had long since decided that someone had tried to drown her one to many times as a baby. That was her only weakness, and he had used it against her more than once.

"C-Cobra……please….I-I….can't swim…." she stuttered, gasping his arms, and trying to pull herself in.

Cobra let go with one hand, but grabbed her again,

"You stop bugging me. I got a lot on my plate right now." he hissed, then pulling her back in.

Kid clung onto him, shaking like a leaf.

"D-don't you..EVER d-do that again." she said, still clinging to him.

He hugged her quickly, then pried her off of his arms,

"You stop bugging me, and I won't. Now let go, my fingers are turning blue."

Which they weren't, but to him, it felt like it. Kid let go off his arms, and shakily got her feet under her again, then walked off the bridge, wanting to get away from the water.

Cobra followed her, but when she went on down the street, he turned, and went to the park, where he had been going in the first place…………………..

_A few hours later…………_

"COBRA!"

Cobra jerked up from his sleep, for in thinking under the shady oak tree, he had fallen asleep, and looked around. One of his boys came charging down the gentle slope to him, and skidded to a stop.

"What?" Cobra asked, not liking the panicked look on the boy's face.

"Knick….and Knack……" he gasped out "They….were down at the end…..of our bridge…..playing…."

"Which bridge?" Cobra asked, sitting up, and cutting him off.

The boy panted a minute, before answering, "Sugar Hill……Bronx….." he said.


	12. Chapter 12

**Well, after a somewhat long wait, this chapter is done. Gave me a bit more trouble than normal, but oh well. So review if you feel so lead. Or review...just cause you can.**

**Disclaimer: You guys know the drill. **

Chapter 11

"_Sugar Hill………Bronx………Sugar Hill……Bronx……"_ Those words raced through Cobra's head, as he ran to their Lodging house. _'Could it be? Curly was staying neutral……and now THIS? Could it have been the Queens boys? ARGH!'_

He ran down the street, turned a corner, almost wiping out, and shot through the door into the main area. Knick was laying quietly on the floor, with Willow bending over him, and Knack was sitting in a chair, trembling and trying not to cry, even though he had blood coming off his face from a large cut on his forehead, and his leg looked funny, as it was twisted gruesomely.

Will looked up at Cobra as he came in, then back at Knick, who was laying very still.

"C-Cobra. I don't……..I don't think he's going to make it." Will said softly, pushing the small boy's black hair back tenderly.

Cobra came over and knelt down next to her, looking at the massive wound in his chest and the bruises that were on his bloody face.

"Those are knife wounds." Cobra said coldly, then got up and went to the loft.

Willow watched him go, and stayed with Knick. Puck and Fiend looked after Knack and took care of his leg, which was broken.

An hour later, Will went up to where Cobra was, and tapped his shoulder, as he was staring at the wall and didn't hear her come in.

"Sven."

He looked up at her, knew the look on her face and broke down in tears, crying into her shoulder.

"He…..he was just…..just a kid…..never hurt no one….." he sobbed, as Will sat next to him and pulled his shaking form into her arms.

"I know he was, but remember that stuff you tell us? About Fate and Destiny? Maybe it was his destiny to go now." she said,

Cobra nodded, and sat up, wiping the wetness from his eyes and face.

"I have to……to go kill someone." he said, getting calm again, "Will. Thanks." he said, as he slipped out the window, and dropped to the ground, then headed off to the Bronx.

Willow nodded as he left, sighed, and went back downstairs……………….

_Harlem_

Jersey slid down against a wall, when one of his contacts, told him the news about Knick and Knack, and wondered fearfully, if City was really that dumb.

'_We're all dead. It wasn't supposed to be like this………no one was supposed to die……' _he thought, holding his head in his hands.

Seal, who was watching him from a rooftop, sunk down as well, Knick had been his little buddy…..and now…he was _dead_. Seal got a bit worried himself, how was Cobra taking this?

He really didn't have time to wonder about it, because Jersey got up, and headed back over to Queens to have a talk with City. Seal noticed that he took two of his goons with him. Was Jersey and City going to get into a fight over this if it had been City's boys that had beaten up the twins? Seal shook his head, and slithered off the building, and slunk after Jersey…………….

_Manhattan_

Jack and Race had just come off the Brooklyn bridge into Hatten, when Jack stopped and looked at Race. The whole trip coming back had been in silence, but the exchange between the Italian and Spot had him wondering.

"Hey Race?"

Racetrack stopped, and looked at Jack.

"What?" he asked slipping his cigar back into his mouth, as he got nervous.

Jack pushed his hat back, "What was that all about? With you and Spot?"

Race frowned and kicked a rock. "Two weeks ago, Spot bet me that I couldn't stay out of Brooklyn, and away from the tracks for two weeks. I said I could. The deadline was tomorrow and I would have won." he replied, almost glaring at Jack.

"Oh." Jack was a bit surprised, "But……you left like you normally did……if you weren't going to the tracks, where _were_ you going?"

Race shrugged, but didn't look at Jack, "Anywhere…….where the rest of the guys wouldn't see me……"

Jack sighed, and started walking again, but didn't say anything else about it………..

A cloud went across the sun, and a cool wind blew from the sea. Then the wind stopped altogether, and it got deathly still. A thunderstorm was brewing over the ocean, much like the one that was brewing in Harlem.

Everyone looked out their windows, praying, waiting for the rain to come, and cool them off. No one in Brooklyn was selling for Spot had put a ban on it, for fear that some of the smaller, weaker ones, would faint from the heat. So everyone, including Spot, were swimming, UNDER the docks, since even the water was hot.

The whole city was still, no one was out, all but the ones that HAD to be out, but they weren't doing much anyways.

But in Queens, things were heating up even more. Jersey and his two goons had arrived there, and were walking down to the river to confront City. Seal was dying to find out what had really happened, and he was scaring himself, cause he had a feeling that he might blow his cover, and kill City then and there if it was him.

"CITY!" Jersey yelled, as he walked down the embankment to the river where most of the Queens boys were swimming.

October, looked up from where he was hiding in the shade of a building, when he heard Jersey's voice, and looked for Seal. One of the Queens boys ran and got City, who surfaced out in the river and swam ashore. Jersey and his goons waited impatiently on the bank and Seal slipped to the shade of one of the buildings, were he found October.

City dried himself off, before going over to Jersey and looking down at him,

"What?" he asked, pulling his hair back into a ponytail again.

Jersey glared at him, "I think you know WHAT." he snapped "What do you think you were DOING? That kid DIED!" One of the goons slipped his hand into his pocket and slipped on a pair of brass knuckles.

City shook his head and folded his arms, "I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. What kid?" he asked, and some of _his_ goons came up behind him.

"THE SUGAR HILL KID!" Jersey hollered, getting frustrated.

October looked at Seal, "What Sugar Hill kid?" he asked.

Seal bit his lip, "Knick and Knack got beat up on our end of the Bronx/Sugar Hill bridge……Knick…….died…." he choked, looking away.

Oct. looked at him, then at City and Jersey, who were looking like they were ready to kill each other…….well….at lest Jersey was looking like he was going to kill.

"I…..I don't think it was City though……I mean…maybe some of his boys were over there…but….they never told City about anything like that. Seal I'm sorry……I know you were attached to the little guy…." October said, sliding down the brick wall onto the ground.

Seal nodded, "Yeah…….I just wonder what Cobra's going to do….." he said, looking at the two leaders and thinking……………………

_The Bronx_

"It…..wasn't me….." Curly choked out, struggling to remove the hands that were wrapped tightly around his neck, cutting his air off.

"Then WHO was it?" Cobra hissed, slamming him against the wall again.

Curly struggled for a minute before giving up and holding still,

"I don't……know…" he said, breathing hard, "It…..wasn't my boys….."

"If I found out that is was……" Cobra snarled, pushing the dagger blade against Curly's throat, and drawing a thin stream of blood.

Curly nodded his head slowly, not wanting to have any more damage to his neck area. Cobra hissed, and let him go, then sheathed the dagger, put his hands in his pockets and walked off, giving the trembling Bronx leader one last warning look before he rounded the corner and went back to Sugar Hill………

After he came back to Sugar Hill, he went into the loft, and pulled out a ornate brass box. Inside, was a good stash of money, maybe about twenty dollars. Cobra took out about five dollars of it, then stashed the box again and went out the window. He didn't want to go down through the main area, because he knew what he would see.

David and Specs had just come back from the park by the river, trying to stay cool. They walked in and David jerked to a stop when he saw the small form laying on the floor, covered with a white sheet. He looked over at Willow, who was holding Knack in her lap.

Specs swallowed and looked at David, who looked at Will.

"What……happened?" he asked. Knick had been about the same age as his brother Les………

Willow shook her head, "We're not sure. They were beaten up…..but we don't know by who…" she said, stroking Knack's black hair.

David trembled and nodded, but didn't really understand why someone would beat up small boys, besides the fact of course, that, they were in New York.

"Well….is anyone doing anything about it? I mean……." he trailed off at the look on Will's face, which was rather firm.

"We are doing something about." she replied coolly. "Here, come take him." she said, standing up and putting Knack down in the chair, then motioning for David to come over.

He did so and picked Knack up, then sat down with him. Willow nodded with satisfaction and went outside with Puck and Kid, who was still in a bad mood from her recent near encounter with water.

Knack took to David quite well, of course, at that point the didn't really care, just so long he was safe. Specs settled down with one of Tic's books, and began sounding out the words to himself, but that white sheet, with the still form was bothering him. It was bothering David also, but neither of them could do anything about it.

"Donde esta me hermano?" (where is my brother) Knack asked, looking up at David with big dark eyes that quivered with tears.

David looked down at him, not understanding. He felt so……… helpless. So instead he just tried to comfort the small Spanish boy the best he could.

About half hour later, Knack had fallen asleep in David's lap, and David himself was dozing, but jumped awake when the front door slammed, and Cobra came around the corner. At the look on his face, Davey wished he could vanish into nothing, but Cobra didn't notice him anyways.

Cobra carefully wrapped the sheet tightly around the body then picked it up, and hauled it off. He had managed to pay for a plot in a church cemetery, over in New Jersey. It was there, that Antonio 'Knick' Torres would be burried…………


	13. Chapter 13

**Well. I have got another chapter done. Kinda dull..BUT it leads up to better things...or...it will. I hope. Anyways...read it...review it...make me happy...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, I do not own Puck, or Kid (thankfully), or City...I think thats all...the rest...are mine. **

**Enjoy.**

_Queens_

While little Knick was being buried, and Mush and Blink were telling Jack about their Harlem experience, City and Jersey were going at it. After a few minutes of Jersey accusing him of killing the little boy, City had lost it, and they went to it.

Seal and October had watched intently, then Seal looked at one of the Queens boys. A red headed boy saw him and nodded, then slowly worked his way over to them, without being noticed,

"Yeah?" he asked, once he got over to them

Seal gave him a piercing look, "Flare, can you get a message to the boss for us?"

The boy named Flare nodded, "Sure, they won't know that I'm gone."

_City slammed Jersey in the gut, knocking him to his feet and knocking the wind out of him._

October took his eyes off the fight and turned back to the other two, "Tell Cobra, what's going on, and give him this." he said, handing Flare a small packet of papers.

Seal handed him a packet as well "Make sure that you get his response, and if he tells you any orders, don't forget them." he warned.

Flare nodded, trembling with excitement, he was going to get to met the boss, and deliver a message. He had never even seen Cobra, for he had been recruited by one of the brothers.

"Ok……I won't forget." he said, nodding to Seal and October, then slipping down the alleyway, heading for Sugar Hill.

Seal watched him go, then turned back to October, "Good kid……green as an apple, but good none the less."

"Uh huh." Oct. mumbled, leaning on the cool wall and watching the fight again.

Jersey was getting frenzied and fighting blindly, not with his head at all. Both of them were extremely hot, and only getting hotter by the minute

The other boys were standing by watching wordlessly. It was to hot to be yelling. Some of them went into the water to stand, cooling their feet…………………..

_Sugar Hill_

Cobra had returned from his depressing task of burying Knick, his pockets a lighter than they had been when he had left. The country pastor hadn't wanted to accept the money, but, Cobra was rather persuasive and the pastor had taken the money.

The rest of the Sugar Hill boys had come back from selling, and were sprawled around on the cool floor or up against the brick walls. The room was silent, except for the breathing their, or the sound of someone shifting. Kid burst in the room and stormed to the girls area, still in a furious mood from earlier. Willow watched her with a sigh, and went back to patching up one of Olaf's pants. Puck sat staring at the wall, wishing she couldn't think about what had just happened.

This dull scene was what met Cobra when he came in. Silence. He knew he had to do something to keep his newsies and his mind off of Knick's death, but what……he didn't know. So he sat down in his chair put his elbows on the table and watched Will. After a few minutes of him staring at her, she got nervous and looked at Puck, mouthing something. Puck nodded and got up,

"Checkers, Cobra?" she asked, standing on one foot and watching him nervously.

David looked up when the uncomfortable silence was broken and sighed. Bouncer glanced at his brother expectantly and Tic put his book down. Kid slid out of the girl's room and stood in the darkness.

Cobra sighed, "Sure…….why not."

Puck nodded and got the board and pieces out, set them up and sat down across from Cobra. The others got up and got a bit closer to watch, but David got the closest, which Cobra made a mental note of.

Puck made the first move, and the game went on in silence, and it was obvious that something was wrong, since Cobra was losing. Cobra never, ever, lost a game. Five minutes later, Flare burst into the room, sweating and panting from his run,

"COBRA!" he hollered.

Cobra turned a icy stare on him, then turned back to the game without a word. Bouncer and Tic pulled him off to the side,

"What's going on that makes you run in this heat and barge in here like you just did?" Bouncer hissed at him, while shaking Flare venomously.

Flare looked at him a bit frightened, "I-I was sent by Seal and October……they have a message for C-Cobra….."

Tic and Bouncer looked at each other, than over at Cobra, who was resting his head in his hands, while watching Puck contemplate a move.

"I don't know…..he's not doing so well……but if there's news from the boys…." Tic said, putting his hands in his frayed pockets.

Flare looked from one to the other, completely in the dark, then looked around the room. It wasn't a very big room, but airy none the less. A make-shift stove was by the table, both of which was obliviously hand-made by the boys. All of the windows but one were boarded up, making it rather dark, but it stayed cooler with only one window…since it kept the sun out. A tall, hand made wall of wooden planks made the entrance to the girls room and the boys room, with a similar wall going between the two. At the beginning it had just been a bunch of sheets separating the girls from the boys

Bouncer's sigh, brought Flare's attention back to the two brothers,

"I'll go talk to him….." Bouncer said, running his hand through his blonde hair and walking over to Cobra.

Bouncer tapped him on the shoulder, and Cobra looked up with a jump. That was a sure sign he was out of sorts, you couldn't make Cobra jumped for anything. Cobra glared at his brother, and listened to what he was saying, looking over at Flare once, then nodded and got up. Flare bit his tongue nervously as Cobra walked over to him, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him aside,

"Bouncer tells me you have word from my contacts…yes?" Cobra asked, releasing the death grip he had on Flare's shoulder.

Flare flinched and nodded, "Y-yeah……I do…..here." he said, taking the two paper packets out of his pocket and handing them to Cobra.

"And…..they wanted me to tell you….that Jersey…..and City are fighting…but City is saying that his boys didn't have anything to do….with…..uh…..the boy dying…and….October doesn't think that….he did either…" he stammered, not liking the look that came on Cobra's face when he got to the….'dying' part.

Cobra growled deep in his throat and stared at the wall, thinking. Kid moved a bit, since he was staring right at her.

"Well….tell them…..tell them to keep on with their current jobs….and to contact me if they hear of anything else….or anything else happens." Cobra said, fixing his gaze on Flare, who nodded and backed away

Bouncer took him out and talked to him a bit, before sending him on his way, and Cobra went back to the checkers game……………..

_Manhattan_

"So Jack, how are we going to get them back from Harlem?" Blink asked, from where he was sitting on his bunk, folding one of the blanket corners into little folds.

Jack sighed, still in a worried, upset mood and sat down on the edge of the bunk, stopping his pacing for a while. Kloppman had said he was going to wear a hole in the floor if he kept doing that, and Jack was starting to believe him.

Skittery stumbled out of the bathroom, where he had been wetting his hot head down under one of the pumps, and slid down the wall, onto the floor with a groan. He was still sick….but getting better.

Race looked from Jack to Skitts, then back to Jack again,

"Jack? Did you hear Blink?" he asked, fiddling with his half chewed cigar.

'Cowboy' looked back up at Race,

"Huh? Oh…..yeah….Um….I don't know…." he said, shaking his head, thinking. "I guess….it would be best…and safer, if they stayed there….especially…..especially if what Spot said was true…about a war brewing…"

Mush rolled over on his bed and looked at the others. Race muttered something under his breath in Italian, and put his cigar in his box by the bed. Stress got up and walked over to Jack, then sat next to him and began rubbing his shoulders.

"It will be ok in the end, Jack. Cobra won't let anything happen to them." she said, digging her fingers into his shoulders.

Jack sorta winced and nodded his head half heartedly, while staring at the floor and thinking, still blaming himself for Specs and David's situation……………..

_Brooklyn_

Ad had finally given up trying to talk to Spot about the fight, and now just kinda wandered around, selling here and there, even though Spot had told them not to sell, Ad had needed to, since he didn't have enough money to pay for his bed that night. He sighed, and sat down in the shade of a building, and rolled his dark green sleeves up again, they seemed to be slipping down a lot lately, which kinda bugged him.

The shade felt so good, and soon, he found himself dozing. But he had a somewhat creepy feeling of being watched, and stopped dozing, only he might have well stayed asleep. Large, rough hands, wrapped around his neck, and with a quick twist, Ad, Spot's second-in-command, was laying on the ground, out like a light. His assailant drug him off into the dark alley…………….

**Authors note: I love doing cliffhangers...there so much fun.**


	14. Chapter 14

**After a very long wait, here it is, the next chapter in this story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Disney Newsies, Puck, Ad, or the others that arn't mine.**

**Chapter 13**

_Sugar Hill_

It didn't take Puck long to beat Cobra at the game, since his mind was elsewhere anyways. But the victory was hollow for her…..it was kinda like beating a sick person with a stick.

The room grew still and silent. Bouncer shifted nervously, and got his ball out, and started bouncing it, then looked at the door, which burst open. Cobra looked up as well, a blank look on his face.

"Cobra….we found him down near the Harlem border…..he's a Brooklynite…" a boy said, as he and another boy laid the runner down on the floor, bleeding.

Will went over and sat down next to the runner, and wiped the blood off his head, then looked up at Cobra, who was staring at the floor blankly. David looked at Cobra too, then at Specs, who was holding the book he had open at one place and looking at the runner.

"That's Spades……..one of Spot's best runners…." he said, getting up and setting the book down.

Cobra's voice made them all jump, "What's a Brooklyn runner……doing in Harlem?" he asked, looking around at his 'underlings', searching for an answer.

Spades' eyes opened slowly, and looked up at Willow, probably thinking he had died, and now an angel had him…..till he heard Cobra's question.

"J…ack…" he coughed, sitting up gently with Will's help.

"What about Jack?" Cobra asked, getting up and walking over to him.

Spades coughed again and wiped his forehead, "Jack….was over in…Brooklyn, wanting…..to know about them…..if Spot knew where they were…." he said, nodding at David and Specs, "Jack…wanted to get a message to them….so Spot told me to go…..and here I am…."

Tic looked at Spades, "Well…what was the message?" he inquired.

David got up and looked at the runner expectantly.

Spades wiped some blood off his arm, "Jack…just wanted to tell you….that he thinks its better….for you to stay here….at least until the war is over…..and he…hopes you are both ok….And Skittery is getting better."

Specs smiled slightly about the Skittery part, and David sighed. He really didn't want to be stuck in this hostile place anymore, where you never knew if what you said was going to get you hurt.

Cobra nodded, "I agree…..and they will stay here….as will you. Its not safe for you to go back now."

"But…" Spades stammered, his face going white.

The scarred eyebrow rose up to the shaggy blond hair, and Cobra made a deep noise,

"But. Nothing. Its not safe for you to go back, and Conlon was a idiot to send you in the first place." He whirled on his heel, and went out the door, like a clap of thunder.

Willow shook her head and got up, "Come on. Lets get these taken care of." she said, leading Spades to the table and sitting him down.

Puck put the checkers away, David and Specs sat near Spades and asked him questions about how Jack was and such, Bouncer and Tic went off somewhere, and Kid……Kid went out after Cobra………………….

_Manhattan_

"Jack…..Hey Jack…."

"He's not waking up….."

"Tanks for the observation."

"OW!"

Jack slowly opened his eyes, and looked up at Racetrack, Blink, and Mush leaning over him. Mush was rubbing his head.

"What's…..going on?" Jack asked, sitting up slowly.

Racetrack stuck his cigar in his mouth, "You was having a nightmare……." he said

Jack wiped his sweaty forehead, "Oh….yeah……I remember now…" he said, sitting up.

"What happened in it? You was sayin something about 'don't hurt them'….." Mush said, his brown eyes full of worry.

Jack was thinking how he has seen a Beagle dog with the same look that Mush had, and didn't hear the question.

"JACK!" Race said, snapping his fingers in front of Jack's face.

"What?!"

"Mush asked you a question…." Race said, switching his cigar to the other side of his mouth.

Jack looked from Racetrack to Mush, "Sorry…what did you ask Mush?"

Mush shook his head, "Nothin Jack……" he said as he walked away, head down.

"I gotta go…." Race said, and walked off as well.

Jack looked up at Blink, "Are you going to leave too?" he asked

Blink shook his head and sat down on the opposite bunk. "Nope. I'm stayin here. You didn't do anything…..so why should I leave?" he said, smiling a little bit.

"I don't know….maybe…maybe we should try to get them back……" Jack muttered running his hand through his hair, "But I already sent a messenger to them telling them to stay there……"

"Its best to leave them there I think….." Blink replied, "And I don't think Cobra would do anything to hurt them."

Jack nodded, and watched a little ant struggling across the floor with a crumb twice his size. "No….I don't guess he would…." he said under his breath. The ant's back legs fell into a crack, and he scrambled back up and went around, only to be smashed by Blink.

"Dumb ant," Blink muttered, getting up, "I have to go sell the evening paper…..see ya tonight……And stop worrying about Davey and Specs.." he said, slapping Jack on the back as he went past, and down the stairs……………….

_Warehouse_

Ad woke slowly and gave a groan. The groan deepened when he started to move his head from where it was lolling on his shoulder. He could barley feel his hands, but he could feel the abrasive rope that bound his hands to the chair. Glancing around, he couldn't tell much about where he was, since it was pitch black, and hearing didn't tell him much either, since it was silent, the sort of silence that you can feel. Ad felt the silence, and the blackness, and shivered in fear. The heat in the building was stifling, and he felt like he couldn't breathe, and the ropes that were holding him to the chair weren't helping much either. Somewhere a door opened, then shut, creaking on rusty hinges and heavy footsteps came his way. Ad swallowed nervously and stayed still, feeling that any movement would only get him hurt more. A large shadow came up next to him, breathing heavily, and stunk of sweat and unwashed clothes. The person fumbled around in their pockets for something, before a light suddenly flared up right in Ad's eyes, blinding him momentarily.

"Heh heh. Guess ya wasn't expectin' dat, was ya?"

Ad blinked several times then looked up at his captor, catching a glimpse of oily whitish hair and weak watery brown eyes, before the light went out.

"What do you want with me?" Ad asked, making his voice stay calm.

"Well now….that's da forty thousand dolla' question….now ain't it." his captor replied, laughing under his breath, before sucking in on the cheap cigar he had lit, and then coughing.

Ad coughed as well at the smoke, his eyes watering, "Then……who are you?"

The other coughed again, taking another drag on the cigar, as another pair of footsteps came up.

"Fellow Brooklynites….like your self." the newcomer said, resting a thin hand on Ad's

shoulder, as lights suddenly came on in the warehouse.

Ad hissed at the sudden light and squeezed his eyes shut, then slowly opened them, as the other two cackled at his pain. The first boy was pale and doughy all around. Pale hair, that hung limply off his head, his eyes were weak and pale, his face was pale and looked like a dough ball. Ad figured he had been raised in a cave all his life. The other boy, was quite the opposite; thin, tanned face, dark brown hair, flashing green eyes, lithe slender body.

"Da boss should be here any time now, then things will……really get rolling." Green eyes said softly, apparently not able to talk much louder.

"And, who is your….boss?" Ad asked, gently moving his head so he could look straight at Green eyes, since he was more pleasant to look at that his counterpart.

Doughboy roared with laughter, "HA, like we'd tell YOU! You'll just have to WAIT and find out." he roared, holding his sides, and choking on his cigar smoke.

"Frank. Shut up."

Frank shut up. A older boy walked out of the back of the buildings, and around to where Ad could see him.

"Stone…who did you say he was?" Da Boss asked, looking at Green eyes.

Stone swallowed, "Conlon's second in command." he said in hushed tones.

Ad looked at Da Boss. Sandy brown hair, small glinting brown eyes; gold chains hanging off his neck and rings on his finger. A thief lord.

"Conlon…….self proclaimed 'King of Brooklyn.'" Da Boss said, a sneer creasing his face. "He's nothing compared to Cobra. All Conlon has is that dumb cane. But Cobra……now there's rich pickings."

Frank and Stone nodded, while Ad looked at them wildly, wondering what in the world was going on. Why would they want to steal from the Newsies? And why did they want him?

(Evil Cackle)


	15. Chapter 15

**I'm on a roll! The next chapter might take a bit longer though.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies or any of the charecters thereof. I do not own any charecters that you own. Yes YOU. I only own what is mine.**

**Enjoy.**

_Brooklyn Lodging House_

Spot glanced around the bunkroom, then got off his bed and went into the lobby and looked around there, then in the bathroom. No sign of his second in command. He frowned, slightly worried, then went back into the bunkroom and climbed up on a chair.

"Hey! Everybody shuddup!" he yelled, quickly grabbing all the boys' attention. "Anybody seen Ad today?"

The group of boys looked at each other blankly, shrugging their shoulders. One of the smaller boys stepped forward.

"Last time I saw him, was heading down towards the east side…..sellin'……" he said, looking up at Spot.

"East side……..Ad knows better not to go there alone." Spot growled, jumping off the chair and leaving in a hurry.

One of his boys ran out of the room after him,

"Spot…….you shouldn't go there alone either…" he said, clearly concerned about his leader's well-being.

Spot spun around and glared at him, spinning his cane around,

"Are you telling ME what to do?" he snapped, his eyes narrowing.

"W-well….no…….I-I was just…….offering…to uh…go along…You know….strength in…..numbers…." the other stammered, glancing at the ground, his shoes, his hands, and briefly, Spot.

Spot looked up the street, "Come on then." he said, turning and heading off towards east Brooklyn.

The two of them walked in silence for a while, the other boy, Frenchy by name, lifting his arms occasionally, letting the steadily cooling breeze flow over him. Spot watched him out of the corner of his eyes, sweating profusely in his pride, before giving in to the cool breeze and lifting his arms as well. The effect was wonderful. Spot had known that it felt good, since he did it when alone, but for some reason it felt even better this time. Frenchy didn't comment about his leaders action, even though he had to wonder.

Before too long they had reached the eastside of Brooklyn. Spot saw some stable boys from Sheepshead resting in the shade of a building, and walked over.

"Hey." he said, looking down at them.

The two boys looked up at him, "Hi……." the one said, a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm looking for somebody…maybe you've seen him."

"Well…what's he look like?" the first boy asked, standing up and stretching.

Spot gave him a steady look, from which the other boy didn't waver. "Reddish brown hair…..gray eyes…tall."

The second boy looked up, then stood up next to his friend, "Packing newspapers?" he asked.

"Yeah." Spot said, glancing over at Frenchy momentarily.

"I seen him." the second boy said, "He was just down the street, but that was about an hour ago….."

Spot frowned, "Which way was he heading?"

"He wasn't heading anywhere…he was sitting in the shade…"

"How long did he sit there?"

The boy shrugged, "Well…when I turned around, he was gone. I looked around for him, since I wanted to look at a paper, but didn't see him no where…"

Spot's eyebrows creased into a worried frown, and he spun around and headed off, muttering a word of thanks over his shoulder. Frenchy hurried after him, although he would have liked to stay and visit with the stable boys.

_Sugar Hill_

"Cobra!" Kid yelled as she ran up to him.

Cobra moved his head slightly in acknowledgement and continued watching the water flow beneath the bridge that he was standing on.

She stopped and looked down at the water as well, then up at him.

"You ok?" she asked, stepping back from the railing a bit.

Cobra sighed and knelt down on his knees, folded his arms on the railing and leaned his head on his arms.

"I guess. I just don't know what I'm doing anymore, or what's going on or….anything."

"Well…..you're in the middle of what will probably turn out to be a bad war with Queens and Harlem, all because of two stupid Mad Hatters and you're going to go out and get revenge." she said, looking down at her leader and friend who looked very tired and worn out.

Cobra stood back up and looked at Kid, resting his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm glad I have you around, Kid." he said bluntly, before walking off the bridge and into New Jersey.

Kid watched him go with a blank look on her face, stunned at what he had said, then turned and scampered back off into Sugar Hill to see what sort of trouble she could get into.

Cobra resolutely went into the small town, found some clueless newsboy, bought his papers off of him and sold for a while, exercising his voice and working off pent up steam.

After a while, when he was almost out of papers, a lady approached him, and bought a paper. She walked off a little ways, reading her paper, then came back up to Cobra.

"Excuse me for asking, but how much do you pay for….say, a hundred papers?" she asked.

Cobra looked at her silently for a moment, "Um…..ten cents."

"And you sell them for five cents?"

"Yeah……"

She nodded, "I see. So selling two papers pays for the next days hundred. And how much do you pay to stay in a lodging house?"

Cobra narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Why?" he asked bluntly.

"Because I'm curious." she replied just as bluntly.

The answer seemed to satisfy Cobra.

"If you'll wait for me to sell these last papers, I'll answer your questions." he said.

Truthfully, Cobra was interested in this blunt woman, who appeared to be well off, judging by the way she was dressed. It wasn't every day that a respectable woman stopped him to ask questions about the Newsie trade.

The lady nodded her head in agreement, and walked a little ways off to read over her paper, and Cobra finished off his papers in a couple minutes. He pocketed the last nickel and walked over to her.

"What was your last question?" he asked, while giving her a once over.

"Well, I think it only right that I introduce myself. I'm Miss Ridgefield." she replied, holding her hand out to him.

He frowned, Miss Ridgefield would be the Mayor of Ridgefield's daughter. But he shook her hand and smirked a tiny bit, something Blink had said once slipping into his mind.

"I go by Cobra."

"I see. I had asked how much you pay to stay in a lodging house." The Miss Ridgefield said, replying to his earlier question.

"Oh yeah………." he said, leading the way to a park bench, where their conversation went on………

_Queens_

City and Jersey and stopped fighting finally, after both of them were about sick from the heat, and their tempers had both cooled off in the course of things. City had taken Jersey and his goons down to the lodging house, where they had both gotten patched up from their split lips, bloodied noses and black eyes.

"So you're saying that you didn't have anything to do with that kid dying, and I know I didn't." City said, sitting on the edge of his bunk and motioning for Jersey to sit as well.

Jersey nodded, holding a precious ice pack to his head. "And I heard that Curly was staying neutral, but he really doesn't like violence, so it couldn't have been him….."

Outside of the window, clinging to the bricks, Seal and October looked at each other in confusion, and frowning continued to perk their ears to what the leaders were saying.

"What about Brooklyn?" Jersey was asking.

City shook his head, "No. Spot and Cobra might not _like_ each other to much, but they don't hate each other. Spot wouldn't have his boys do something like that."

One of the boys that had been sitting in the back of the room, listening, spoke up.

"Me and some boys caught a Brooklyn runner earlier today. We roughed him up a bit before he got away. He hasn't come back through. Could be a spy for Spot….." he suggested.

City and Jersey frowned at each other, thinking.

Jersey sighed and looked at the slowly melting ice, "I know this thing got out of hand, more than I had wanted it too. I just wanted to get back at Cobra, but Cobra hasn't done anything yet. Just stayed quiet. Its making me nervous, this isn't really like him at all."

"Yeah…..its bothering me too. But I'm expecting him to make a move anytime now."

"Well…..I guess I'd better get going….it's a long walk home." Jersey said, standing up and motioning to his goons.

City stood as well, "Watch your back going home, like I said, Cobra could make a move at anytime."

The two boys shook hands, any animosities felt about earlier that day were gone and forgiven. What Jersey had said was true, it was a long walk home. City's lodging house was in the middle of Queens and the only way to Harlem, was either to take the very long way through the end of the Bronx and through Sugar Hill, or to go through Manhattan. Manhattan was the shortest and safest way to go, so really Jersey was quite safe, since he didn't think Cobra would be lurking around in there anyways. It took him about a half hour of steady walking to reach the Queensboro bridge, then another half hour to get into Harlem, skirting the water the whole way. To go into Manhattan to far could prove disastrous.

Seal sighed tiredly and kept on his charge's tail, even though he was nearly starved and exhausted from running all over the place following him. But he was glad that October had been there to keep him company, otherwise he might have gone mad. Somewhere a boom of thunder sounded, then a few sprinkles of rain started to fall. Seal nearly ran into Jersey and his goons, as they had stopped at the first signs of rain, their dusty faces turned up into the sky, praying for more.

The rain came in at a steady pace, washing the dust away and cooling the air and city down. The thunder rolled and boomed, accentuating the flashing of the lighting.

At the same steady pace of the rain, Cobra, Fiend and Rob slipped into the outskirts of Queens. After his long talk with the Mayor's daughter, answering her questions and telling her about the war that was starting up, he had felt more like himself for some reason. He was calm and collected, cool and calculating. So when he had come back to the lodging house that evening and told his boys that they were going to retaliate, the boys had been relived……….

**Review! Please! Feed my ego!!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Long time I know, but I finally pulled through and got it done. In one day. Yay me. Hope everyone likes it as much as I did.**

**Disclaimer:I don't own Newsies, or any of the characters that arn't mine. I only own my characters.**

**Chapter 15**

_Brooklyn_ _Warehouse_

When Ad regained consciousness once more, he found that his captors had left after clubbing him and he also found that he wasn't bound to the chair anymore. He groggily sat up and with one hand felt the cold concrete floor beneath him. A small shaft of light pierced through the dusty air and played across his legs. Ad waited for his eyes to adjust, then looked up to find where the light was coming from. There just might be a chance that he could find a way out.

He reached out around him, feeling for a wall. His fingers brushed against something. He explored further, and found that it was a broom.

"Great. I'm locked in a closet."

"Yep."

Ad jumped, his heart pounding. Had he really just heard someone answer him? Or was his mind playing tricks on him?

He wrapped his fingers around the broom,

"Is….someone in here?"

"Yep." came the reply.

Apparently his fellow captive didn't have much of a vocabulary. Ad narrowed his eyes, probing the darkness opposite himself and moved out of the beam of light.

"Are you being held hostage too?" Ad asked, hoping for an answer that was longer than three words.

"Yep."

Ad loosened his grip on the broom. Anyone with a one word vocabulary couldn't be too dangerous.

"Well….how long have you been here?"

There was a pause. "I dunno……went to bed one night, woke up here."

Ad inwardly cheered. His jail mate wasn't a complete retard after all.

"Shh…..they're coming." the other quietly.

Outside footsteps approached and a key scraped the lock. Ad was blinded when the door opened, flooding the room in light.

"Come on…..Da boss wants to move ya."

Ad didn't recognize the voice from the earlier captors, and was about to ask why they were being moved, but the man entered the room.

With a sickening _crack_ he clubbed the other boy over the head, and then Ad's vision went black as he too was bashed over the head…………………

_East Side_

Spot and Frenchy tirelessly continued their search for Ad, asking various people who might notice things like boys carrying newspapers. The storm showed no sign of letting up and it got darker as the sun went down. Lights in houses started to come on, making little pinpoints of yellow light through the sheets of rain. Frenchy pulled his shirtsleeves down his arms and wiped the water from his eyes. Spot trudged on, not going to give up on Ad, but he was glad for Frenchy's company, no matter how witless he was.

"Hungry?" Spot asked, breaking the silence as he stopped under a awning.

Frenchy looked at him silently, then nodded, "Yeah…..I guess I am…"

"How much you have?" Spot asked, after pulling out a handful of coins and counting them with a frown.

"Um……Lemme look." Frenchy slowly counted out the money in his pocket. "I have…..fifty two cents."

Spot looked at him, "You didn't sell much did you…." he muttered.

Frenchy bristled angrily, "I didn't get to sell the evening edition, cause I was with you…and you know as well as I do that it was a bad day." he snapped.

"Why you……" Spot began, not believing he had just been spoken to that way. However, something deep in him said it wouldn't be wise to make Frenchy leave him in the middle of East Side alone. "You're right…..come on…lets get some soup."

The two of them darted out into the street, and halfway across, Frenchy stopped,

"Spot…….."

Spot stopped on the other side, "Come on…..I'm hungry."

"Spot……..get over here……"

"Don't you tell me what to……do……" Spot slowed in his pace across the street to deck Frenchy and looked where he was pointing.

In the water that was running down the street, was a dark tinge of red, barely visible in the darkness…………………………….

Cobra withdrew his dagger as his two goons lowered the body into the alleyway and spread his papers over him.

"One to go." Cobra said, sheathing his dagger and slipping down the alleyway.

The goons looked at each other and silently followed after their leader, wiping the blood off their hands…………………………

After arguing about wether the red was paint or blood, Spot gave in and followed Frenchy up the thinning stream of red. The boys both froze at what they found.

"G-g-osh…." Frenchy stammered.

Spot was a bit white as he bent down over the body and felt it.

"Still warm…..I think this is one of City's boys……." he said quietly while lifting the newpaper and gulping at the wounds.

"C-come on Spot……T-they's….who killed him….could still be around." Frenchy said, backing out of the alleyway.

Spot was inclined to agree with Frenchy, and backed up as well. Now he would have to tell City, and explain what he was doing snooping around in lower Queens. Not something he wanted to do.

Frenchy was already across the street, glancing around him nervously, as if expecting to be stabbed at any moment.

"I don't think I'm…hungry…anymore…….Can we go home now, Spot?" he asked, when Spot got back over to him.

"No. We don't go home until we find Ad." Spot snapped, and headed on down the street, clearly shaken up.

Frenchy's shoulder's dropped more than they already were and he hurried after Spot, and their search continued………………………….

_Manhattan_

Bright and early the next morning, Jack popped out of bed two minutes before Kloppman came and yelled them up, got dressed, splashed water on his face and booked downstairs and out the door. A wave of silence followed his sudden departure, until Racetrack started choking on his cigar.

"Wow……." Blink stated, while scratching his head.

"Yeah….don't suppose he's going to go do something stupid…like….jump off a bridge, do ya?" Mush asked.

Skittery yawned and kicked off his covers, "Nah…….he'll be ok." he said.

Everyone looked at Skitts, who, it seemed, had recovered overnight. He frowned at their looks and headed for the bathroom, humming under his breath.

Kloppman stopped at the doorway and looked in, then at the clock, then back at the boys.

"_This can't be right……the clock must be wrong, either that or they're getting responsible. Yeah right."_ he thought, as he watched them start their day without him waking them up.

In moments, the boys (and girls) had turned out in force, heading to buy their papers. The night's rain storm had freshed everything up, cooled things off, and made life in New York City much more tolerable………………….

**Hopefuly the next chapter won't take as long, but in the meantime, you could review...please?**


	17. Chapter 17

**YAY ME! This will be the last chapter for a little while, as I am moving to a place with no interent. BUT, in that time I hope to get many chapters done, so that when I do get connected again, I will be able to update a bunch.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, ect ect ect. You know the drill.**

**Chapter 16**

_Manhattan-Central Park_

Jack flew down the paved walkways that criss-crossed Central Park, his lungs feeling as though they would burst. Finally his body said 'enough' and he slid down a tree trunk and onto the cool damp grass. Once his blood stopped pounding in his ears, he started thinking.

Mrs. Jacob's daily visits were starting to get frustrating, it was almost as if she was only reminding him of his own failure, his own mistake. He wasn't even sure if there was any truth in what he had been told, that Spec's and David were in North Harlem. For all he knew, it could be all lies. They could be dead.

He sighed and wiped his face off.

"_I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and find out what the truth is. No matter what."_

After a few moments more of cooling down, Jack stood up and started resolutely up the last few blocks, and entered Harlem…………….

_Sugar Hill_

When Cobra and his two goons came into the lodging house that morning, he was met by Kid and Puck at the door. Kid had her eyes narrowed and Puck was nervously scratching the back of her leg.

"Oh boy." he muttered "Well…come out here and tell me what's wrong."

The two girls came out, Kid giving evil looks at Puck.

"She stole my bunk." Kid snapped.

"Will stole mine…I didn't have any place else to sleep." Puck retorted.

"There's lots of floor."

"I'm not a boy, I won't sleep on the floor. Why don't YOU sleep on the floor?"

Cobra yawned and shifted his weight to his good leg. Before a cat fight started though, he pushed them apart and held them at arm's length.

"I'll talk to Will……but I'm going to need you both tonight…so behave, or you'll stay here." he threatened.

Both girls nodded and took off in separate directions, not wanting to be left behind.

Cobra growled and went back inside, tired from his excusion the night before.

"Feind, call back Seal and October, now. Will, give Puck her bunk back. David and Specs, you're with me." he barked.

The lodging house jumped into action; Feind booked outside and ran off towards Queens, sending out short, sharp whistles. Will growled and gave Puck her bed back, who gave Kid her bed back. David and Specs looked at each other nervously, and ran off after Cobra.

After walking acouple blocks behind Cobra, David narrowed his eyes and stepped in front of Cobra.

"When do we get to go back? You're not holding us hostage any longer." he said, looking up at Cobra pointedly.

Cobra looked down at him cooly. "I'm not holding you hostage. You have been free to go…..I only think it would be wiser to stay here." he replied, pushing David out of the way.

Specs looked from David to Cobra in shock. Shock mostly from the fact that Cobra didn't deck David there and then.

"But why? Why is it safer?" he asked, pushing the subject.

Cobra stopped again and narrowed his eyes at David. "Shut up." he said flatly.

Specs and David looked at each other and silently walked after Cobra, wondering where he was taking them………………

_Brooklyn Lodging House_

"You think we should go looking for them?"

"Nah, Spot's probably just got himself a girl."

"Extry! Extry! Tigers get away from Circus!"

"Shuddup Mikey, we're tryin' to think here."

Mikey tucked his papers under his arm and walked over to the two other boys.

"Whatcha trying to think about? Whether to sell or not?"

'Renard', a crafty red head and Finn, your average working boy, looked down at Mikey, a vertically challenged individual, and snorted.

"No," Renard said, "we're trying to figure out what happened to Ad…and now it seems, what happened to Spot and Frenchy."

Mikey frowned for a moment, deep in thought. "I know! Maybe he got himself a girl!"

"That's what I said!" Finn replied.

Renard slapped both of them on the back of the head.

"No stupids. Spot wouldn't go get himself a girl, if he was going to look for Ad, and even if he did, where's Frenchy?"

"Maybe he got himself a girl too." Finn suggested, then started laughing. "Yeah…right."

Mikey read over his papers, "Well, I dunno about you guys, but I want a bunk to stay in, so see ya later."

After Mikey had left, Renard went back to thinking, pacing around with one hand on his chin. Finn watched him in silence, his mind not churning nearly as hard as his counterpart's.

"I got it." Renard finally said.

"Got what?"

"With both Ad and Spot gone, we could take over Brooklyn."

_Basement near Sheepshead_

"Hey...kid…wake up."

Ad slowly opened his eyes and groaned. His head was throbbing from being clobbered multiple times. He could have whipped the his captor, but he had never had the chance.

"Where….am I?" he muttered, sitting slowly up, so as not to make himself overly dizzy.

"I dunno."

Ad looked around as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, and he recognized his jail mate from the broom closet. He started to stand up, but was pushed back down.

"Don't try standing yet. They clobbered you good."

"So…I feel." he replied, rubbing his head gently. "Where do you _think_ we are?"

His fellow captive shifted his legs under him, "I dunno. We were in a wagon….so its hard to tell."

Ad felt a sudden rage swell up inside him and got the urge to punch the other boy for his lack of knowing anything. He pushed it back down and pulled himself so he was leaning against the damp stone wall.

"Well…what _do_ you know?"

The other shrugged. "I know that we're being held hostage by a bunch of lowdown thieves, I know that I'm hungry and cold. I know that you're a Newsie….."

"How do you know that?"

"Your hands. They're stained from ink. So are the shoulders of your shirt, from carrying your papers."

"Oh…yeah. Well…what do you do?" Ad asked, suddenly just wanting to keep his mind from going mad with frustration.

The room grew very silent for a moment, "I……I don't know……"

"Whaddya mean, you don't know?"

The other boy cradled his head in his hands, "I-I don't…remember…" he gasped.

Advantage frowned and rubbed his hand through his hair. In the silence of the room, he could hear outside noises. The clip-clop of a passing horse. Faint voices on the street above. A barking dog. Familiar noises in a unfamiliar place. He could see his companion faintly, huddled against the wall, still cradling his head in his hands.

Ad stood up and started to walk around the room, feeling where he went with his feet and hands. Even in the dim light he couldn't see the floor. Most of the light was above him. His hands felt a rough wooden door, and he softly traced the edges till he came to the knob. He tried it, but it was locked. Frowning, he reached for his knife that was strapped to his arm, to see if he could jimmy it open, but his hand failed to find it.

"Naturally the took it. Bet they took my money too." he growled, and quickly searched his pockets, to find his money and marbles, gone……………

_Harlem_

Jack stopped midway into Harlem and questioned his reasoning behind coming into Jersey's territory in the first place.

So far, he hadn't had any trouble with the Harlem boys, in fact, he hadn't even seen any of them, out selling or otherwise. This made him a little concerned, but nothing else.

After a moment of standing in the middle of the street, going over his objectives, he started off again, turning off the main street and crossing over a few, until he reached the Harlem lodging house.

He was met by two of Jersey's goons who hadn't defected to Cobra.

"What's Jack doin' in Harlem?"

"Gee…I dunno."

Jack frowned and shook his hair out of his face, "I'm comin' to find out the truth."

"The truth about what Jack?" Jersey asked, coming out of the lodging house, where he had been nursing his bruised body.

"My boys. I want to know what happened to them." Jack replied, walking up to Jersey and confronting him.

"My boys told your boys what happened."

Jack narrowed his eyes, "Then what happened to you? Cobra find out you lied to me?"

Jersey rubbed the lump on his jaw, "Its none of your business. Now my boys told you the truth, they're with Cobra. I don't know anything else besides that."

The two goons nodded their assent and looked at the two leaders, hoping for another showdown.

Jack merely ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "Well…I dunno where they are, but I gotta find them. Can you get me to Cobra?"

"No…if I did, he'd probably hold you there. Or worse." Jersey looked at the ground, "Listen, Jack….none of this was supposed to happen…..Specs and Davey just, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yeah…sure…" Jack said, before turning and walking off, his mind churning over what he had found out…………………..


	18. Chapter 18

**After a long wait, here is the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Newsies characters. I do not own Stress, Advantage, or anybody else that you might have seen in any other story. All I own in Cobra, Seal, Fiend, random people, and all the others that I own. Yadda yadda yadda.**

**Chapter 17**

_Harlem_

Seal had just got the message Fiend had sent out to leave, and was on his way back to Sugar Hill, but Jack had showed up and there was no way in the world he was going to leave just then. His blue eyes narrowed when Jersey told the truth to Jack and even apologized, something just wasn't right with that picture. The other thing that wasn't right, was Jack was walking off back to Manhattan. This was something Seal simply couldn't allow.

Quickly he slipped down the back of the lodging house into the alleyway, then darted out into the street, down another alley and got ahead of Jack.

Jack, who was looking at the street as he walked, mulling over what Jersey had just told him, had no idea that Seal was walking right next to him, until he said something.

"Whatcha thinking about Jack?"

"Cripes!" Jack hissed after returning to the ground and smoothing his hair back down.

Seal narrowed his eyes again and grinned at the same time. "Bit jumpy are we?"

"What are _you_ doing here, aren't you supposed to be lurking in someone's closet?" Jack snapped.

"Nah….that's Fiend. But I could ask you the same, besides the fact that I already know what you're doing here."

Jack pulled Seal into a side street, "How would you know? And another thing, what's going on with my boys?"

Seal hadn't seen Jack so aggressive in a long time, and took him seriously.

"I've been following Jersey, seeing what's going on. Cobra likes to know when things are happening. And last time I heard, your boys are fine. I haven't been to Sugar Hill since this thing started."

"Let me come to Sugar Hill with you." Jack said, after releasing his grip on Seal's shirt collar.

Seal snorted, "I think not. Cobra has enough going on without you showing up."

Jack narrowed his eyes, "Then send me back David and Specs."

"No."

"Yes." Jack insisted.

Seal got a dangerous look on his face. "No. I have no authority to send them back."

"You get them back to me, or you're coming with me." Jack hissed.

"Jack. You wouldn't want to get on Cobra's bad side." Seal snorted, not believing that Jack would actually threaten to take him hostage.

Jack got a hold of Seal again and shoved his face close to Seal's. "You listen to me. I'm almost on the verge of doing something drastic. I've been nearly killing myself with worry about my boys, and I'm_ going to get them back anyway possible_. And _you're_ going to help me."

Seal backed away from Jack, distrust rising up in his eyes and his body getting tense, like a coiled spring.

"I'm not helping you Jack. Cobra will bring them back, when he thinks its right."

Jack raised his fist and punched Seal, only his fist met with Seal's open hand and faster than he could blink, he was laying on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Seal, was gone………..

_Queens _

Spot and Frenchy had woven their way through Queens' side streets and thoroughfares, still on the search for the missing Advantage. Early that morning Spot had finally had to stop and get something to eat, least he lose his companion or himself to hunger. Between the two of them, they had been able to purchase some biscuits and apples. The later they could munch on through out the day.

Frenchy was getting tired of their wanderings and had been trying to get Spot to go back to Brooklyn for the past couple of hours, but to no avail. Spot was still as determined as he had been when they started, weather and dead kid not withstanding.

"Come on Spot…..at least lets buy some papes and sell a bit. Nobody from Queens sells this area…so they won't know." Frenchy begged, his feet aching from the endless walking.

Spot shook his head and kept walking, peering down every alleyway and side street they passed, not going to give up. Frenchy sighed and followed Spot for a few more streets, before shaking his head, turning around and heading back to Brooklyn. He had had enough of wandering around, cold, wet, hungry and tired.

It took Spot a little while to realize that his companion was no longer with him, and it wasn't until he said something that he knew he was gone.

"I guess we'll head down to the lodging house….see if we can't find City."

The only reply to his statement, was the clopping of a horse and wagon, a man and a woman yelling at each other and a little Newsie yelling out a headline.

Spot stopped and looked around, "Frenchy?" he asked, looking down an alleyway, then backtracking some.

Frenchy, had already hit a main street in Queens, heading for Brooklyn as quickly as he could without running………….

_New Jersey_

Cobra finally came to a stop in front of a large house, and turned to David and Specs, who were breathing a bit hard, since Cobra's stride could be hard to keep up with.

"You two know were we are?" Cobra asked, leaning on the iron wrought fence.

David looked around himself. For the past hour, they had been winding through Upper New York, which was still small farms. They had crossed at least two rivers, or, they had crossed the same river twice.

"I'm not sure….so, no." David replied.

"This house is the Mayor of Ridgefield's. We're in New Jersey. And this is where you're going to stay for a while." Cobra said, pushing the gate open.

David narrowed his eyes at Cobra, "Whoa whoa whoa. I don't think so. If you can take us here, you can take us back to Jack. I think you're just scared to, I don't think there is any danger at all. You have runners all over the place, so what's the big deal?" he demanded.

Cobra watched him in silence. "When you have Jack's place, as leader, you'll know the answer to all those questions. Until then, _shuddup._"

Specs nudged David with his elbow and gave him a pleading look that said 'I want to get home alive, so shuddup.' David shook his head at him and was getting ready to press the issue farther, but Miss Ridgefield showed up.

"Cobra. I was worried you wouldn't be able to make it. Are these my charges?"

Cobra nodded, "David, and Specs. This is your new best friend, Miss Ridgefield." he said, nodding at them, then walking off, leaving David hanging and both Davey and Specs very confused.

"Well, come in gentlemen. You both look famished." Miss Ridgefield said, motioning up the stone walkway.

David flushed at being called a 'gentleman' and Specs sorta grinned.

"We'd love to, but we really got to get back to Manhattan." David said smoothly.

"You didn't think he'd leave you without a guard, did you?"

Specs' hair raised an inch and turned around, to find himself looking into Fiend's black eyes. Fiend grinned evilly and pushed them both through the gate.

"Ya see boys, before, Cobra wasn't holding you hostage, but now, he is." Fiend said pleasantly, "If you would have just kept your traps shut, you could'a been home by now. Now go inside and have tea with da charming Miss Ridgefield."

David saw no way past Fiend and willingly followed their 'hostess' into the manor, but his mind was churning. Fiend couldn't guard the whole grounds, and that meant there was a way of escape…………………

_Queens_

City paid the old apple peddler for an apple and headed down the street, softly whistling under his breath. It seemed to him that things had settled down again. Cobra hadn't made a move as of yet, things were quiet in Harlem and Brooklyn was silent as a tomb. Yes, it was a good day to be alive. He bit into his apple and savored the juicy crispness, letting it sooth his parched throat.

However, as that sweet juiciness went down his throat, a cane simultaneously tapped him on the arm. He chocked on the apple and spun around.

"Spot Conlon!" he snapped, wrenching the cane away from Spot. "You idiot!"

Spot glared up at him and wrenched his cane back, "Don't start with me City. I got news you ain't gonna like."

City folded his arms, "First, I wanna know what you're doing so far up in my territory. Alone."

"I figure you already know why." Spot replied coolly, leaning on the cane.

"Well I don't, so why don't you enlighten me." City shot back.

Spot narrowed his eyes, "Ad's missing. Been looking for him."

"Advantage? I haven't heard anything about it." City said honestly, taking another bite of his apple.

"Well maybe you haven't. But maybe you're missing a boy as well." Spot replied smugly.

City's dark eyes flashed, "One of my boys _is_ missing. What do _you_ know about it?"

"Nothin' much."

"You know something Spot." City snapped, "Maybe you know to much…"

Spot shrugged and looked at the sky, "One of my runners came through here a few days ago….on his way to Sugar Hill. He ain't come back yet. You wouldn't know anything about _that_ would you?"

City growled, "Yeah…my boys said they roughed him up a bit. But we ain't seen 'im. Now what about my boy?"

"Me and Frenchy found him laying dead and warm in a alleyway down on East Side Queens…..Didn't stick around long though….I guessed he was one of yours.."

"I knew it was to quiet in Sugar Hill." City said softly, a glimmer in his eyes.

Spot frowned up at him, "What?"

"Nothing." City said shortly with a shake of his head. "I've been hearing rumors that you handed Brooklyn over to your boys though."…………………..

_Manhattan_

"Hope Jack's ok….."

"If he ain't back by two, I'm going to find him." Stress snapped irritatedly to Racetrack.

Skittery folded up his last couple of papers and sighed, now much better than he had been. He said it was the rainstorm that had cured him.

"Stress….I don't think you should be off running around looking for Jack…"

She glared at him, her green eyes flashing, "I'll do what I wanna do, thank you very much Mr. Suddenly Concerned For My Well-being."

"Whoa whoa whoa……" Race said, pushing between them, "I think we just need to go for a swim and cool off….tempers are gettin' kinda hot around here."

"Shuddup." Stress snapped, before storming off down the street.

Race blinked, and Skittery frowned a little, before going off to finish his remaining papers.

"Well. Everybody's in a nasty mood today…." Racetrack muttered to himself, before turning and heading to Brooklyn, lest he miss the afternoon races.

Only today, he would never make it…………………………..

**Yes, that cliffhanger gives you right to hate me for ever. Mwaha haha ha.**


	19. Chapter 19

**This is simply a reposting of chapter 18, as I had a few things to correct. So you needn't read it again if you've read it once already.**

**Chapter 18**

_Sugar Hill_

Willow narrowed her eyes at the scabbed together door and twirled the small throwing knife around her fingers, then glanced over the room. Kid and Puck were sitting silently in two corners; Puck nervously playing with her messily braided hair, and Kid was staring holes in the floor while digging splinters out of her hands.

Seal, Fiend and October sat behind Will, and she turned to look at them.

Fiend's black Italian eyes were alight with excitement and something more dangerous; blood lust.

Seal's fingers were drumming noiselessly on the table, his head resting on the back of the chair, light blue eyes closed in relaxation.

October was the only one that seemed outwardly keyed up Will thought, for he was bouncing his leg up and down and fidgeting with everything he could get his hands on. This wasn't really anything like him, since it was Fiend that was the more excitable one.

Will turned back around and watched the door, then pulled out her little pocket watch. As she did, the door opened and Cobra strode calmly in out of the darkness, his brothers behind him.

She rose to meet him and he greeted her with a nod.

"Will, Puck and Kid. I need to you spread out. Will I want you in 'Hattan. Puck in Bronx and Kid, you're with me." Cobra said, his voice calm, but his eyes betraying him. They held the same blood lust that Fiend's did……………………..

_Basement_

Advantage woke up suddenly from his several hour nap with the feeling that something just wasn't right. He sat up and looked around in the darkness and realized it was nighttime.

"I musta' been tired than I thought….."

"Yeah, you musta'." a familiar female voice said haughtily.

Ad cocked his head and frowned a little bit, "Bittah?"

"Correct." she said, striking a match and lighting a lamp.

"You traitor!" Ad hissed, shutting his eyes at the sudden light, "You were in on this! I thought you were loyal to Spot!"

Bittah narrowed her eyes, "Shuddup Ad." she said, taking a few steps closer and belting him across the face with a oak branch.

"Huh? Waas' goin' on?" Ad's jail mate muttered from the corner.

"Who's he? I wasn't told there was anyone else here." Bittah growled, storming over to the corner and yanking him up.

"Who are you?!"

"I-I don't…know……"

Ad flinched as she slapped the kid. "Bittah. Leave him alone and tell me why the _heck_ I'm in here!"

"Shuddup Ad."

"No. You shuddup Bittah." he growled, getting to his feet and feeling around for the oak branch…………………..

_Brooklyn-Queens Border- Earlier that Day_

Spot Conlon was relived when he saw the bakery shop that was the Queens Brooklyn boundary and broke into a little bit faster pace. It had been almost two days since he had left Brooklyn and he was eager to get back and start selling again. City hadn't seemed to know anything about Advantage, so after a quick bite to eat, Spot had headed home, starting to wonder if he should even continue looking for his loyal second in command.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Spot snapped out of his revere and narrowed his eyes at the speaker. "This is my territory. Don't go challenging me about where I'm going." he snapped.

The boy snorted, "Ain't your territory no more Spotty boy."

"You know the saying Spot….. 'When the cat's away, the mice will play." Renard said, stepping out of the bakery with a butter slathered roll in his hand.

"Well the _cat_ is _back_ Renard. And you have some fast talking to do." Spot snarled, his fingers already tightly gripping his cane.

Renard laughed softly, "No, I don't have to start talking. Either you leave, or you accept the fact that I'm in power now. Simple as that. You _never _should have left Brooklyn so……unattended."

Spot stood there looking at Renard in silence, gripping his cane so tightly his knuckles were turning white.

"What's wrong Spot? A bit scared now that you have been taken over?" Renard asked with a mocking laugh, which ended with a stunned gasping choke.

Spot pulled his cane back to himself and advanced,

"Now you listen here. I am the only leader of Brooklyn and there ain't nobody who's going to take my place."

Renard ran his hand across his bleeding nose and laughed,

"No Spot…..you're wrong."……………….

_Miss Ridgefield's_

"Davey…..wake up…"

David was vaguely aware of being shaken and Spec's voice, but couldn't pry his eyes open and respond.

"Come on Davey……." Specs hissed, slapping David's face.

"Shtop…….I…. tryn'…." David groaned, pushing Specs' hand away.

Specs breathed a sigh of relief, "Good…I was getting worried there……I think that creepy Fiend drugged you before he left. He's gone now, and everyone else is in bed, so we can escape now."

David blinked up at Specs "Huh?"

"Weren't you listening?!" Specs hissed, slapping David's face several times.

"Yesh……I was….but none of itsh makin' sense….." David growled, slowly sitting, holding his head.

"Here…..drink this….it'll clear your head." Specs said after glaring at David for a moment.

David took the offered cup of steaming coffee and took a sip, then made a face and gagged,

"Didn' you shugar it?" he asked.

"Don't be disgusting. Only wimps and women sugar their coffee." Specs replied haughtily.

David snorted then gagged down the strong black coffee.

"Wow….that did work……" he said, standing up suddenly and falling right back down.

"It'll clear your head…but it won't help your balance any." Specs laughed, twirling his hat around on his finger.

David stood back up, much more slowly this time and opened the window,

"I must have been drugged by Fiend……Sounds like everybody is asleep now. I say we should make a run for it."

Specs stood up and rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Ok, Mr. Know It All."

"What was that?" David asked, while leaning out the window and looking down at the ground. "Sheets….we need sheets."

"Sheets?"

"Yeah…that's what I just said…"

"I know what you said." Specs sighed.

"Then why did you say sheets?"

"Just never mind and lets get outta here."

David stood there for a moment staring at Specs then started ripping the bed apart and tying the sheets and blankets together.

Once they had all the bedding tied together and hanging out the window, Specs looked down to the ground then at David,

"You don't actually expect me to go down that thing do you?"

"Jack has." David said simply.

"Do I _look_ like Jack to you? And….have you ever done this before?"

David looked out the window again, "Well…not really…..But Jack has….and he was ok."

"Jack is not ok."

"Well…you do have a point there," David said thoughtfully. "But I want to get out of here and back home, so it's a risk I'm going to take."

Specs sighed, took his glasses off and started out the window, "You're right." he said, then shut his eyes and slid down the 'rope'.

"I was going to go first." David muttered, then shimmed down the rope.

"Going somewhere gentlemen?"

"Yes, we …….are…." David started, then turned around and found himself looking into Fiend's black eyes again…………………………..


	20. Chapter 20

**Yay! I finally got another chapter up! Yeah, ok anyways.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Newsies. I do not own Stress, Bittah, Advantage, City, Puck, Kid. (I think thats all...)**

**Enjoy, please review, make me feel warm and fuzzy.**

**Chapter 19**

_Queens Lodging House-12:00_

City was in the middle of a very good dream. Somebody was trying to shake him out of the very good dream. He groaned and flung his arm out, trying to push the unwanted disturbance away.

"City…_wake up_!" City's goon, Riley hissed, setting his candle down and grabbing his leader's shoulders, pulling him upright.

"I'm…up…" City muttered, opening his eyes and shooting Riley with a pointed look. "whatever you woke me up for…had better be bloody good."

Riley nodded, "Oh, it is boss. It really is."

City swung his legs out of bed and slid onto the floor, "Are you going to tell me what, or should I go back to bed?" he growled.

"Oh…right." Riley said, and left for a moment. He came back with another boy, both dragging Stress.

"Lemme go! You no good doity dust pans!" Stress yelled, struggling against the two boys.

City blinked and rubbed his eyes, making sure he was seeing things right. "You…brought me Stress?" he asked.

Riley flinched as Stress assaulted him with her feet. "No boss…ow… we found her wandering about up here."

"I wasn't wandering you ape!" Stress yelled.

City took Stress from Riley and the other boy and set her down on his bed, "Excuse the ape," he said, "but what _are_ you doing in Queens in the middle of the night?"

Riley huffed at being called an ape. Stress glared at City then folded her arms, "Lookin' for Jack and Racetrack. They've both gone missin'."

City's dark face frowned, the candle light illuminating his sharp features. "Conlon was just up here, telling me that Advantage had gone missin'…now Jack and Racetrack," he mused. "I almost wonder if Cobra isn't behind all this."

"Yeah, but Cobra already has Specs and Davey," Riley piped up. "so why would he take Jack and Race?"

Stress watched City's face for a moment, "Jack had went to 'find out the truth', which means he would have been in Harlem. But no matter, you baboons can't keep me here." she said, ending with a snap.

Riley opened his trap to say something, but was silenced by City's look. "Riley, you and Hoby take Stress back to 'Hattan. And watch you backs, something is going on around here…"

Riley and Hoby groaned but said nothing. Stress growled a little bit at being escorted, but went with the two 'apes' anyways. After they had left, City sat back down on his bed and blew the candle out. He sat thinking for a long time, before finally laying down and starting to drift off.

A strange unnatural sound yanked him back from the land between asleep and awake, and held him frozen in his bed. Soft footsteps, a quiet gasping gargle, then silence……

_Sheepshead Racetrack-12:30_

"LET…ME…OUTTA HERE!!!" Racetrack yelled, rattling the door of the stall he was locked in.

He was hungry, tired and the hay dust was hurting his lungs. It had been only little more than a day since he had been clubbed over the head with a pipe and bundled off to Sheepshead Racetracks, which had been his destination anyways. He didn't understand. Sure, he had a few tiny gambling debts, but nothing a day's worth of selling couldn't pay off. But he had no real enemies, which was why he was so confused about why he had been kidnapped and locked in a horse stall that hadn't been used in a very long time.

Racetrack sunk down into the itchy hay and his lower lip trembled, "I wonder if da guys are looking' for me…Wonder if dey even know I'm gone…" he said quietly to himself. "Some people…who are in captivity make pets out of tings, so dey ain't talking to themselves…Wonder what I could make a pet out of…"

He glanced around in the darkness. Having paced the stall nearly a hundred times, he knew what was there. Nothing. Frowning, Race went though his pockets.

"Watch…watch chain…No. Money…probably not. Paper…hmm…I could make paper people!" he suddenly exclaimed and thus occupied himself until he fell asleep half hour later, surrounded by little twists of paper people…

_Harlem Lodging House-12:31_

Everybody in the small bunkroom was sound asleep. The room was fairly quiet, minus grunts, snores and squeaks. The squeaks came from the bedsprings as someone rolled over.

Jersey was crashed on his stomach, drooling into his pillow, arm dangling over the side of his bed. A pack rat stood up on his hind feet and sniffed at Jersey's dangling fingers, before running off to find what shiny things he could add to his collection under the floorboards.

The window in the washroom slid open silently and a dark figure slipped in, holding the window up with one hand, then dropped to the floor. Jersey rolled to his side in his sleep, his bed springs creaking loudly. The dark figure froze, listening for more noise before letting the window back down and stepping lightly across the floor boards to the hallway.

The intruder quickly flitted across the hall and into the bunkroom, stopping to look at Jersey before going on down, softly counting under his breath. Upon reaching Ringo's bunk, Jersey's main goon, he stopped and pulled a jackknife out from under his shirt and leaned over, softly feeling for Ringo's neck.

Ringo giggled in his sleep, "L-ladles….tuna….hehehe….h-hi…"

The dark form got a sick look on his face and quickly plunged his blade into Ringo's neck, yanking it across the throat slitting him ear to ear. Ringo thrashed once, then expired soundlessly. His blood bubbled up from the throat and stained the bed and pillow crimson.

The figure wiped his knife off and went out the way he came, soundlessly slipping back out the window and into the night. Somebody in the bunkroom started snoring loudly and they slept on, unaware of the murder that had been committed in their midst……

_New York City_

Dawn broke over the city, spilling golden light out over the buildings, dissipating the fog and starting to take the chill off the air. Pigeons woke up from their nests and roosts, flying down into the city to find breakfast and visit their homeless human friends.

In Queens, City and his boys awoke to the horror of finding a fellow newsie murdered in his bed. City shuddered at the remembrance of what he had heard last night, but had shrugged it off as one of the boys dreaming.

Brooklyn found its former leader sleeping angrily in a alleyway, his hand wrapped around his cane tightly, bruised face resting on his arm. He had lost the fight with Renard the day before and his body ached, but his ego was more inured than anything else.

Across the river in Manhattan, Stress finally fell asleep, tired from her late night escapades of looking for still missing Jack and Racetrack. She was still confused and a little scared about what had been happening lately, but nothing would stop her from falling asleep.

Main Harlem found Jersey waking up to his few girls screaming at the sight of dead Ringo laying in a pool of his own blood first thing in the morning. Jersey had to leave and go to the docks to gather his scattered nervous and think of what to do.

Only in Sugar Hill where things somewhat normal. Cobra and his goons were just waking up, having come in sometime around two that morning, exhausted from trekking around the city. Fiend was still in New Jersey with his charges, who he had locked in their room and stayed sleeping in a chair with them. After their escape attempt he had decided that it would be wise to keep them in his sights at all times……

_Basement_

Bittah groggily woke up to find herself still the basement. Her head throbbed and she flinched, trying to remember why, and why she was in the basement still. Then she remembered.

She had been yelling at Ad when he had suddenly hit her across the forehead with the oak limb. After that, it was black and fuzzy, but she had a pretty good idea that Advantage and his jail mate had escaped after she had blacked out.

With a growl she slowly stood up, her head spinning and headed for the door. As she fumbled for the handle, she realized that it was locked. Cursing under her breath, Bittah reached into her pocket only to find that her key was gone.

"Advantage," she snarled "I'll have your hide for this."

Bittah stormed around the dark basement before sitting down to wait for her cohorts to show up and let her out. She would have a few choice words for them, that much she knew.

"They should have been at the outer door standing watch, but obviously they weren't. Either that or Advantage and his dimwit friend overpowered them and escaped that way. Advantage can be very resourceful." she mused to her self, stabbing her knife into the branch angrily……

**So, who is doing all the killings? Will Advantage get to Brooklyn and take it back for Spot? Will Race escape?! You'll find out when I dicide to write more!**


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